The Missing Midwife

Salome (right) and the midwife "Emea" (left), bathing the infant Jesus,
is a common figure in Orthodox icons of the Nativity of Jesus;
here in a 12th-century fresco from Cappadocia.

Could the timing be any more ironic, not to mention stupid? In the Ontario government's ongoing mean-spirited, "lump of coal in the stocking" cuts it has announced the end of current and future funding to the College of Midwives of Ontario, the regulatory body that oversees more than 900 midwives and has had government support for 25 years. The halt in funding is retroactive to April 1, 2018, and includes almost $800,000 in operational grants for the College's current budget year, which made up one-third of its budget.

So, here we are within days of Christmas, the time of year when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus who was probably born with the help of a midwife. No, she doesn't get any credit in Luke's gospel even though it would have been unlikely for an infant to be born without a midwife in attendance in that time. As a man Joseph would have told himself "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' babies" and gone in search of assistance.

While there isn't a midwife in the gospels, an ancient text from the year 145 called The Protoevangelium of James tells the story of Mary’s midwife and another woman who assisted at the birth.

And I [Joseph] saw a woman coming down from the hill-country, and she said to me: O man, whither are you going? And I said: I am seeking an Hebrew midwife. And she answered and said to me: Are you of Israel? And I said to her: Yes. And she said: And who is it that is bringing forth in the cave? And I said: A woman betrothed to me.

And the midwife went away with him. And they stood in the place of the cave, and behold a luminous cloud overshadowed the cave. And the midwife said: My soul has been magnified this day, because my eyes have seen strange things — because salvation has been brought forth to Israel. And immediately the cloud disappeared out of the cave, and a great light shone in the cave, so that the eyes could not bear it. And in a little that light gradually decreased, until the infant appeared, and went and took the breast from His mother Mary.

And the midwife cried out, and said: This is a great day to me, because I have seen this strange sight. And the midwife went forth out of the cave, and Salome met her. And she said to her: Salome, Salome, I have a strange sight to relate to you: a virgin has brought forth — a thing which her nature admits not of.

It's a bit strange that the Magi who weren't present at the birth of Jesus, the Christ, show up in most Nativity scenes yet the midwife doesn't. Perhaps we could offer a little education for Premier Ford on this one, although he seems more willing to listen to noisy fundamentalist Christians than any encouragement about treating people with compassion.