A social awakening about the great role of musicians is taking place in Brazil. Two private hospitals in São Paulo have banned conductors, claiming that they “can increase the incidence of nosocomial infections”. This, of course, is not true. Conductors are trying to reduce the absurd 90 percent C-section rate in hospitals. In protest of this ban, on February 3, 2013, the Guides of São Paulo organized a march to defend the right of pregnant women to have Guides. Supporters walked from one of the hospitals to the other – it was a huge march with more than 1,000 participants. The leaders of this movement wrote letters to newspapers and magazines, but received an indignant response from doctors. There was a breakdown in the relationship between the conductors and the other side, represented by the doctors and the hospital. Nevertheless, I suggested that, for the sake of women and babies, the doulas should build good relationships with mothers-to-be and medical staff, gradually spreading the word about the benefits of doulas and raising awareness of the services provided by doctors and hospitals, rather than challenging them angrily. After this dramatic incident, I am still concerned. It is true that in order to leave room for more humane childbirth care and some change, a national agenda for conductors must come to the forefront to understand the concerns that exist among medical professionals and hospitals. This march has left me feeling both happy, joyful, hopeful, and worried. What should we do after this to take the next step? The day before the march I happened to see a movie, Les Miserables, and the beautiful scenes and music were still swirling in my head. With a little imagination, I tried to connect this seemingly unrelated movement about the music director with a revolutionary scene from the 19th century. The latter led to a real event and the closing of the Parisian streets in 1830. The government’s July regulations provoked a widespread uprising against restrictions on the freedom of the press, the dissolution of the lower house, the cancellation of the results of the last presidential election, and the permission for the government to impose emergency decrees. I can find a hint of a connection between the July ban and the ban on musicians in private hospitals. The tyranny ignored the demands of the hungry and the poor, and eventually the people of Paris rose up. But as we see in the film, despite their valiant attempts, they eventually died at the hands of the king’s troops. They overlooked the weakness that they did not have strong weapons and political ideas to fight the conservative government concisely and effectively. This barricade bloodbath went down in history with no positive results (except for some moving songs, a Broadway musical and an Oscar nomination). This is exactly what I fear. If the hospital reverses its position, “It’s in your hands, conductor of music.” To which musicians? Activists who are “in touch with reality”? How long can this militant confrontation last in a situation where hospital medical staff feel their position is being challenged? There is a big difference between expressing concern about the issue and taking radical action. Appeals to justice, even when corrected, can easily lead to more injustice. We have worked for years to make the reproductive process loving and humane, but a blind struggle could bury it all. Hospital administrators in Brazil are generally more concerned that the medical advice given and measures taken by the conductor to the pregnant woman exceeds her scope of practice, which in turn affects the normal medical treatment. I think we should organize a discussion to clarify that the role of the doulas is to give the necessary emotional support for a humane birth, not to give medical advice or diagnosis. Their role is to be a friend of the mother and to meet her needs. Brazilian doulas come from different sources, some trained by professional doula trainers (who are also doulas themselves) and others by health professionals with extensive experience in pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. The latter include the world-renowned pediatrician Michelle O’Donnell, the nationally renowned obstetrician, and the world-renowned health care provider. The latter include the world-renowned pediatrician Michelle O’Donnell, the nationally renowned obstetrician Hugo Zabdino (squatting birth), and the nationally recognized obstetrician Hugo Zabdino. The latter include world-renowned pediatrician Michelle O’Donnell, nationally renowned obstetrician Hugo Sabdino (a leading proponent of squat births), pioneer in creating home births without additional conditions Anna Krystyna, and a leading expert in the field of breastfeeding. Cristina Duarte Duarte, and me. I am a full time obstetrician and attend births as part of the doula-midwife-OB team (see Jones 2009). The focus of the doula’s work should be on the pregnant woman, not on the birth itself. The doula should not perform (and should not be trained to perform) any medical treatment protocols, nor should she perform tasks such as taking temperatures, taking blood pressure, or listening to the heartbeat of the mother and baby. In particular, they should not make recommendations or diagnoses. Conductors are not allowed, and are not advised, to give allopathic, homeopathic or herbal remedies to pregnant women. They are only to give physical and emotional support to the pregnant woman during labor and delivery, and not to interfere with medical activities. The doulas should be trained to help the mother-to-be and the medical staff by making her feel calm and confident during labor. Different studies in many countries have shown that epidural rates have decreased in the presence of a doula, as physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual support is what makes mothers feel comforted and aware that contractions are normal, which in turn makes them better able to tolerate pain. The conductor made them feel internally empowered to avoid analgesics and undergo a cesarean section. (Available in the Cochran Evidence-Based Medicine Library and the WHO and Brazilian Ministry of Health). Do not confuse the demonstrations of the doula (other protests treating the mother as a birthing machine and the hospital as an interventionist) with the duties of the doula. Conductors should not express medical opinions during the labor and delivery of a pregnant woman, and should not challenge the authority of doctors and nurses. The labor and delivery room should not become a battleground. Conductors should pay close attention to the comfort of the women and help them communicate effectively with the medical staff. Absolutely do not protest in the delivery room; any other place is fine. The first priority for Brazilian conductors is to establish a model for the profession and a national association. This association needs to define the scope of practice for conductors and the code of conduct within the hospital. No matter how hard we try, as long as we don’t organize, we won’t be able to create a system that provides services to all pregnant women who need a conductor to work. We must work to make the docent welcome in the hospital and the medical staff will recognize our efforts. Most U.S. hospitals welcome doulas, and obstetricians and nurses will find that doulas reduce their workload so that doulas can serve more pregnant women. This is the opportunity we have in Brazil – the benefit of being a doula who is focused on helping women in labor and delivery and the medical skills and practitioners who can bring a helping hand to women in need. This should not be a challenge for the doulas alone. They need the help of humane doctors, interested nurses and well-prepared couples. Changing the way people are born is a great social change that requires everyone’s participation, because it will ultimately change the world we inhabit. The anthropologist Robbie K. Freud, who is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, has written a book on this subject. Davis-Floyd has made many helpful suggestions for changes to the English version of this article, for which I am grateful. Reference: Jones, Ricardo. 2009. “Teamwork: AnObstetrician,aMidwife,andDoulainBrazil.” InBirthModelsThatWork. editedbyRobbieDavis-Floyd,etal.BerkeleyandLondon:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,271C304. (RicardoHerbertJones,M.D., is an obstetrician, gynecologist, and homeopathic medical practitioner. He is the editor-in-chief of MemoirsoftheManMadeofGlassandBetweentheEars:Storiesof Birth, and an international speaker and teacher.) Postscript The 106 issues of Midwifery Today’s special issue on hip position translation manuscripts are approaching the end one after another. Every time at this time, I treat the proofreading as a feast of my professional spiritual food, quietly, sitting in my office, reading several articles in one breath, and several times the staff locked me in the office when they locked the door. Later, after people knew my habit, they called me out when they were leaving… … The original purpose of introducing Midwifery Today is to open a window to the world for our midwives. The writing style is narrative, not just a bunch of data, so that people can understand the world of midwifery in a simple and easy way. In order to influence a group or a profession, it is necessary to persistently insist and implicitly accept and digest, this process is gradual and unconsciously input into your brain, we need to improve midwifery technology and at the same time promote midwifery culture, and integrate the concept of humanistic care into obstetrics little by little, so that our mothers and babies can gradually benefit.