She will declare herself
Language reflects culturea verbal expression of nurture versus naturea lexicon of social and emotional understandingan often intrinsic and automatic reflection of surroundings, knowledge, and beliefMedical language reflects medical culturean institution rich in lingual flavormarinated in historywrapped in patriarchyseasoned with misogynysalivated in judgmentListening to one morning report, at a community hospital, with open ears and a critical viewthe birth spectrum complete from normal to complex, from healthy to sick, from spontaneous to medically managedlanguage used to described those served by hands, and hearts, and minds of caring and knowledgeable providerscalls the questionof common language as reflections on innate and status quo approachesof medical terminology as embodiment of learned and unquestioned belief systemsof colloquial lingo as rote and unindividualized standard of careBreak and internalizean actual medical reference to artificial rupture of membranes, the breaking of the bag of watersand placing an internal monitor either inside the uterus and, or another on the fetus's headboth reserved for specific circumstances, ideally in providing safe care or validating concernSaid, as such, break and internalize, when pointing at someone's room, or at their name on a boardshould be understood in parallels, linguistically presumingknowledge dominancephysical superioritylack of ability to declineBreak and internalizemedically and socially discussesher body, and the baby within it, are objects against which actions occur, rather than minds and lives with which decisions are made and healthcare providedher resolve to be broken along with her capacity, her bag to be broken along with informed consent's right to declineeach somehow presumed medicine's possession, to give or take awayBreak and internalizenegates the knowledge of women in society being socially brokenwhether in grandiose offenses or microaggressionsand internalizations of those shattered piecesshared as culture, as language, for generationsto the point where women and female providers say these words as actions toward patients of their own historical brokenness.She is going to get cuta familiar medical reference to surgical birth, cesarean section, operative deliverycutting, itself not even the correct term, slanderizing the appropriateness of incisional approachesagain placing laboring person as object against whom action will be takenSaid, as such, she is going to get cut, when loosely referring to one's labor and birth processas summation of its medically definitive enddismisses the reason of the cutting, casually waving a verbal nod that there is something to be removedthat her body is to be punished for failing itself, or failing her, or failing physiologyand medicine is the purveyor of the punishmentShe is going to get cutis the gold standard example that no medical lexicon should sound like pure violence when taken out of contextand using language that otherwise could be interpreted as doing just the reverse of 'first do no harm' should be revisedso as to not provide a verbal space by which violence against women is defined within common medico-linguisticsShe is going to get cutpreempts the knowledge that cutting leads to scarsupon scars, upon scarswith adhesions that bindeach piercing, dissection, and carving a way to sculpt women into society's, ahem, medicine's, model citizenShe will declare herselfa colloquial medical reference to an assumed, upcoming change in maternal or fetal statusso severe or so abrupt that would determine a change in route of delivery, from vaginal to surgicaltruly is typically said in moments of doubt when all actually appears healthy to continue as isperhaps when birth is least trusted, as in trials of labor after cesarean, or first births, or transfers, or, really, anyone for whom suspicion might be raisedwhich is to say, anyoneSaid, as such, she will declare herself, when pointing at someone's monitoractually is an oxymorona false allowance of choice, a facade of heard voicenot allowing linguistic understanding, nor informed consent, nor physical space, for her to do that herselfmedicalizing birth to the extent that heartbeats and muscle spasms speak louder than wordsto the extent that medical bodies and minds know more than the bodies and minds they have been taught individualized care in servingShe will declare herselfpresumes that she has not already done soassumes that the voice we heard was uninformed, or behind on information since the last time we spokelays thick in the verbal fog and decision-making abilities of magnesium sulfate or nubain or fentanylor belittles the voice that we barely heard the first time, exacting her desires and preferenceslike a carefully breathed and worded birth plan, laughed at with light thought to its intention and purposeShe will declare herselfembodies the social construct that women are still working to do just thatfinding a path toward validation and acknowledgment and proclamation and assertionthat this work lies in the future, not in the pastand the rest of us lie in waiting, attesting on her behalf until thenMedical rhetoricfigures of speechfiguratively redefining the figures before usitself needs reminding of its reflection of cultureand, as culture, its need for revision and improvementListen to the language.Realize the impact.Choose words carefully and with intention, as the religious accept communion, as activists paint words on signs, as poets break pencils and erasersBreak and internalize the lingo.Be cut and shattered by the lexicon.Declare war on the verbal medical assault against women.Because, ultimately,She will declare herself independentShe will declare herself safeShe will declare herself knowledgeableShe will declare herself powerfulShe will declare herself in her own wayShe will declare herself without our permissionShe will declare herself hers and hers alone.