Encouraging Modern Midwifery An Interview with Ina May Gaskin by Linda Sechrist
I
na May Gaskin, a certi- fied professional mid- wife, and the founder and director of The Farm Midwifery Center, in Ten- nessee, and the author of Birth Matters: A Midwife’s Manifesta, has attended more than 1,200 births. A recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (widely known as the Alternative Nobel Prize), she will be inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in October. On April 19, Gaskin, who has been called “the midwife of mod- ern midwifery,” will appear at the Lee County Alliance for the Arts VIP reception for a private viewing of her
award-winning documen- tary, Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives. The public screening on April 20 is part of the Southwest Florida Green Family Expo and Great Cloth Diaper Change.
Ina May Gaskin
Why does the medical profession believe a birth is a procedure that requires hospitalization
for every woman, when centuries before, and today in other cultures and countries, home births assisted by midwives are the norm? No midwives dispute that hospitaliza- tion is sometimes required for some
women. However, many medical professionals assume that humans are inferior to other species of mammals in their ability to deliver their young. I find this an absurd assumption—of the 4,600 species of mammals that deliver their young in a natural birth setting, it is highly unlikely that humans are the only species built by nature to fail. Hu- man mothers require the same consid- eration as other mammalian mothers: freedom to move and change position during labor, low lights, and a secure place to labor in privacy without undue interruption. A midwife understands that a birth
is much more than pulling one human out of another and that it’s a process which other cultures, far wiser than ours, know more about. I think we need a synthesis between birth tech- nology, when it is necessary, and the kind of ancient wisdom that midwives can access.
What can we do to help midwifery become more acceptable? Women, as well as the fathers of their babies, have to research and study
36 Collier/Lee Counties
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