Book Review: Better Birth Days

BIRTH MATTERS: A Midwife’s Manifesta by Ina May Gaskin (Seven Stories)

by Keith Goetzman
May-June 2011

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Ina May Gaskin is the godmother of modern midwifery, having honed her natural-birth techniques at the pioneering Tennessee intentional community The Farm. Birth Matters assembles her lifetime of accumulated wisdom into a book that is equal parts birth stories, critique of the medical status quo, and passionate plea for improving the birth experience—for mothers, babies, and their families. “Good beginnings make a positive difference in the world,” writes Gaskin, and I think everyone who’s been born would agree.

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Cover-165-thumbnailThis article first appeared in the May-June 2011 issue of Utne Reader.

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  • Lin Ostler 6/8/2011 9:10:41 AM

    Exclusively, Used only a midwife for all three births. Only the last was in a hospital, because I was nearly 43 and "others" were convinced I was too old to be safe at home. How I wished I was in a pool or pond or ocean instead, but got a fairly famous poem out of it--"Waterbirth Dream." Ina May was my all time favorite read in preparations, and even now, as a Doula. THANKS for the mammories.

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