Birth Matters: A Midwife's Manifesta

by Ina May Gaskin, Ani DiFranco (Foreword by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781583229279
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	03/22/2011
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	562,173
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ani DiFranco ix

Chapter 1 The Importance of Birth and Birth Stories 1

Chapter 2 Second-Wave Feminism, Birth, and Motherhood 17

Birth Story: Charlotte at The Farm 43

Chapter 3 Sexuality and Birth 51

Chapter 4 A Brief Look at the History of Midwives and Medical Men 63

Birth Story: Chloe at The Farm 102

Chapter 5 Technology and Empowerment 107

Birth Story: Teresa at Home 134

Chapter 6 Gathering the Power of Sisterhood 143

Chapter 7 What's a Father-to-Be to Do? 167

Birth Story: Keri at The Farm 181

Chapter 8 My Vision for the Future 191

Birth Story: Michaela at the Northern New Mexico Birth Center 208

Chapter 9 The Kind of Obstetrics I Miss, and Its Great Defenders 211

Appendix A The Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative 221

Appendix B List of Resources Pertinent to the Midwifery Model of Care 229

Appendix C Further Reading/Films 231

Appendix D The Farm Midwifery Center: Preliminary Report of 2,844 Preganancies, 1970-2010 235

Glossary 237

Acknowledgments 241

Index 243

Editorial Reviews

"A stand-out by Ina May Gaskin...elegantly covers the normalcy and power of birth, includes birth stories, and makes sound arguments for more support and less intervention. An essential acquisition." —Library Journal 

"Ina May Gaskin is such an important figure in the effort to bring a more kind birthing process back into the mainstream, so check out her book if you'd like to learn more about having a blissful, powerful birthing experience." —Alicia Silverstone, author of The Kind Life

From the Publisher