“Somebody came out and called me back into the room and said, ‘It’s time.’ I sat down, they passed him into my arms and he took his last breath and he died,” said Christianson.
Scott was blind, had a hearing impairment and other disabilities.
“Medicalizing him was the story of his life,” said Christianson, adding that emergency care could be very confusing and upsetting for him. “He’d had enough of that during his fragile life.”
Despite his complex needs, as Scott’s death grew imminent, many of the fears Christianson felt were universal. She worried that he would be alone, or that he would be interfered with by a medical crisis. She worried that people would restart his heart or try to resuscitate him.
To help navigate all this Christianson turned to Judith McGill who became the family’s death midwife. She helped them develop a plan around Scott’s death, and aided them in confronting tough questions along the way.
“Where I began was helping Gloria think, ‘What is this nightmare about his death?'” said McGill. “So we worked through the fears and then transformed that into what would be the most honouring, the most beautiful picture at the very end of his life. Who would be there, what would it look like.”
Death midwifery is a new practice here in Canada. A death midwife (or death doula as they’re sometimes called) can help create death plans, some provide spiritual care, psychological and social support, and sometimes even physical care. They can help plan home vigils and home funerals, and offer guidance with respect to what your rights and responsibilities are in caring for someone who’s died.
To read the full article, please visit CBC.ca.
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