To say that I am thrilled about the Mother's Day release of Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives would be the Understatement of the Year.
Maternity care -- who provides it, what it costs, how the baby gets out -- is much bigger than the so-called Mommy Wars. It's a question of the common good, and to get there, we need, as HuffPost blogger Randi Hutter Epstein recently noted, to go beyond the old "home vs. hospital" debates.
Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives recounts the history of the natural birth movement in the United States. It is the story of a revolution, initiated in the least likely place imaginable.
Earlier this month we filmed an interview with Dr Agnes Gereb, the Hungarian obstetrician and midwife who was imprisoned and is currently under house arrest for supporting women giving birth at home. The filming was for our ONE WORLD BIRTH new documentary film which will be released this summer.
There's a whole lot of warfare going on over unconventional mothering and much of it is being done by women.
Ina May Gaskin has been delivering babies for nearly 40 years and her latest book, Birth Matters, A Midwife's Manifesta (Seven Stories) shows you how....
Giving birth to my child naturally was not about politics, nor adventure. It was about what was best for both of us. I felt the need to protect our first moments together, to bond, and as a result of following my gut, I acquired a purpose in life.
I have spent the last 30 years educating women about the wisdom of their bodies, including their innate ability to birth normally. Yet our so-called healthcare system...sees the female body and its processes (like labor) as an accident waiting to happen.
