Never forget that "unscientific" and "old wives' tale" were used as a way to eradicate women healers and their ancient knowledge, a way for upper and middle class men to gatekeep healthcare for those with a certain level of education and wealth and for men of all classes to control and dominate women.
They burned women for knowing the healing plants and herbs, for their chants and prayers over birthing women. They tried to ban wise women from tending the sick with plant medicine. Then they co-opted the word 'midwife' to mean it's modern form, a highly skilled obstetric nurse. Then they decided that national insurance would only cover one type of medicine, creating a captive audience.
We are still finding out today how much wisdom really was in those "old wives' tales".
Calling something "fluff" or "woo woo" is a form of misogyny that goes back hundreds of years when they tried to discredit women healers even as the male doctors unknowingly transferred infection from corpses to birthing women. Why are birth workers participating in this denigration of spiritual, woman-centered practice?
I look at our healthcare system today and I see the damage that is still perpetuated against women in the name of "science". Where women's bodies and minds are collateral damage while they conduct their big baby trials and inductions for stillbirth reduction. When will it end? When we refuse to participate in their reality anymore.
