Birth Matters

Simply put, midwife Ina May Gaskin is the most important person in maternity care in North America, bar none.--Marsden Wagner, MD, MS, former director of Women's and Children's Health, World Health Organization

There is no better guide to have at your side than the legendary Ina May --Harvey Karp, MD, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block

Ina May Gaskin is an American treasure.--Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth and Misconceptions

Renowned for her practice's exemplary results and low intervention rates, Ina May Gaskin has gained international notoriety for promoting natural birth. She is a much-beloved leader of a movement that seeks to stop the hyper-medicalization of birth--which has lead to nearly a third of hospital births in America to be cesarean sections--and renew confidence in a woman's natural ability to birth.

Upbeat and informative, Gaskin asserts that the way in which women become mothers is a women's rights issue, and it is the act that perhaps most powerfully exhibits what it is to be instinctually human. Birth Matters is a spirited manifesta showing us how to trust women, value birth, and reconcile modern life with a process as old as our species.

Called the midwife of modern midwifery by Salon, Ina May Gaskin has practiced for nearly forty years at the internationally lauded Farm Midwifery Center. She is the only midwife for whom an obstetric maneuver has been named (Gaskin maneuver). She is the author of Spiritual Midwifery, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding.

Renowned American midwife Gaskin--the only midwife for whom an obstetric maneuver has been named--has practiced at Summertown, Tennessee's internationally lauded Farm Midwifery Center for some four decades, and is the author of three other books on childbirth and mothering. Drawing on her own work, her knowledge about how different cultures around the world approach childbirth, and other research findings, she offers a practical and reliable discussion of pregnancy and the significance and purpose of childbirth. Noting the high risks and alienation of the medicalized maternity care that dominates in the US, Gaskin calls for greater involvement of women in the formulation of maternity care policy that respects natural birth, and in the accurate education of young women and men about birth. Includes a foreword by Ani DiFranco. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Renowned for her practice's exemplary results and low intervention rates, Ina May Gaskin has gained international notoriety for promoting natural birth. She is a much-beloved leader of a movement that seeks to stop the hyper-medicalization of birth—which has lead to nearly a third of hospital births in America to be cesarean sections—and renew confidence in a woman's natural ability to birth.

Upbeat and informative, Gaskin asserts that the way in which women become mothers is a women's rights issue, and it is perhaps the act that most powerfully exhibits what it is to be instinctually human. Birth Matters is a spirited manifesta showing us how to trust women, value birth, and reconcile modern life with a process as old as our species.

Called "the mother of authentic midwifery," INA MAY GASKIN has practiced for nearly forty years at The Farm Midwifery Center, which is noted for its low rates of intervention, morbidity and mortality. She is the only midwife for whom an obstetric maneuver has been named (the Gaskin maneuver). She lives in Tennessee.