Empowerment seems to be everywhere these days. Everything from mascara to chocolate to yoga classes seems to come with a large dose of empowerment on the side and this is especially true when it comes to anything connected with birth. Every book, every class and every podcast claim to help you become empowered. Empowerment sells, but do we really understand what it means? Brace yourself for this, I’m about to say something shocking. As a doula and a birth educator I am not interested in empowering women (gasp)! Hang on a minute, let me explain…. The modern concept of empowerment appears, to me, to be profoundly passive. To empower a birthing woman is to give her authority and control over her care. To disempower her, is to take this control away.  When I asked a group of women what made them feel empowered or disempowered most of them could only…