Quotes from Ina May Gaskin

In her insightful Of Woman Born (1976), Adrienne Rich said it very eloquently: "My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness.

Midwives provide all the prenatal care healthy women need. The midwifery ideal is to work with each woman and her family to identify her unique physical, social, and emotional needs. In general, midwifery care is associated with fewer episiotomies, fewer instrumental deliveries, fewer epidurals, and fewer cesarean sections. Midwives are trained to identify the relatively small percentage of births in which complications develop and to refer these to obstetricians.

It is good to regard labor as hard work to be done, work that a long line of female ancestors did in the past that enabled us to be here at all.

our bodies must work pretty well, or there wouldn't be so many humans on the planet.

in the ordinary course of a healthy labour, the mouth of the uterus opens by some secret agency; or at least without any apparent force.

Marie Striekwold-Ebben, passed along this piece of wisdom: "Even if you don't have much money, keep in mind that the bedroom is the most important room in the house. Love and sadness are shared under the sheets, and you hope that your children will come into the world in your bedroom and that you will leave the world there.

When she starts to understand that being amused and grateful actually moves the process of labor along more efficiently, she starts to work toward these feelings herself. Hard work may continue, but she now has the heart for it. Instead of fearing her body, she experiments with trusting it.

emphatically, that I was. After that I decided not to feel sorry for myself or

The pain of labor and birth has an entirely different message. It says: "Relax your pelvic muscles. Let go. Surrender. Go with the flow. Don't fight this. It's bigger than you." This is far different from the message of "Protect yourself!" or "Run away!" that accompanies injury.

Four or five false starts are not unusual. Such a pattern is perfectly normal and poses no extra risk to the baby if the water bag has not broken. So why not wait? There is nothing to lose.

A consensus meeting organized by the World Health Organization on appropriate technology for birth held in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 1985 recommended that "no geographic region should have rates of induced labor over ten percent.

I know of no country in the world that has passed a law specifically denying a woman's right to choose where she intends to give birth.

It does a man good to see his lady being brave while she has their baby... it inspires him.

We are the only species of mammal that doubts our ability to give birth. It's profitable to scare women about birth. But let's stop it. I tell women: Your body is not a lemon.

It's easy to scare women. It's even profitable to scare women... But it's not nice, so let's stop it.

Remember this, for it is as true and true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.

It is important to keep in mind that our bodies must work pretty well, or their wouldn't be so many humans on the planet.

Remember this, for it is as true as true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.

Many of our problems in US maternity care stem from the fact that we leave no room for recognizing when nature is smarter than we are.

Gardeners know that you must nourish the soil if you want healthy plants. You must water the plants adequately, especially when seeds are germinating and sprouting, and they should be planted in a nutrient-rich soil. Why should nutrition matter less in the creation of young humans than it does in young plants? I'm sure that it doesn't.

Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.

If you can't be a hero, you can at least be funny while being a chicken.

The way a culture treats women in birth is a good indicator of how well women and their contributions to society are valued and honored.

It would be a mistake, though, to consider care by family doctors or midwives inferior to that offered by obstetricians simply on the grounds that obstetricians need not refer care to a family physician or midwife if no complications develop during a course of labor.