Dear Elisabeth,

In my thesis concerning antenatal care, I found the word "mitleben", which is German, and "meeleven" in Dutch for the kind of relationship that women wanted to have with their guiding person. Dutch women used this in all kinds of terminology, and not only talked about people "living with", but also "feeling with" and growing with" etc. in pregnancy. Relationwise women's culture in Dutch mothering society was a very strong and also a very public one. I could not really find an English alternative term, except midwife  ( most like participate or compassion (which is more like pity-whereas women meant a person "living" with them including all emotions- also joy )). Silvia Käppeli, an expert (PhD) in  nursing and Jewish culture in Switzerland , described the same aspect in nursing (but then also  emphasised the "sharing of sorrow" part) coming from the Jewish culture in a German article.

The core category of my grounded theory resulted from this very intimate relationship and finally became Mothering the mother, which included the phenomenon of "cultural safety", as described by Denis Walsh, but originates from the Maori culture in New Zealand . According to me, there could be a linguistic (Gaelic) relationship between the German, Dutch and English term in our sort of lost science, on which the essence of midwifery is based. If you want to know more, please contact me off-line.

regards,

 

ans

Ans Luyben

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