Title: Ina May's Guide to Childbirth
Author: Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin is considered by many to be the most respected voice in modern midwifery. Along with several partners, she delivers babies at the Farm, a commune in Tennessee devoted to healthy living and where birthing naturally is seen as a healthy part of life. She and her partners have delivered over 2,000 babies, with a c-section rate of 2.4% and a hospital transfer rate of under 5%.
In the first section of the book, Gaskin has compiled nearly 100 pages of birth stories of mothers who have delivered babies either at the Farm or under the care of Gaskin and her partners. These are the beautiful, glowing kinds of birth stories that I could only dream about having. The women work hard, but are supported the whole time by a group of women who know and respect what the body does in birth. I think it would be difficult after reading this section of the book not to want a delivery with as few interventions as possible.
In the second half of the book, Gaskin discusses the science behind what she does-- the things she and her partners do and know about birth to make their intervention rates so much lower than those of standard obstetrical care, as well as the common practices of the medical community which actually lower outcomes in childbirth.
I loved this book, but in some ways it makes me profoundly sad to have read it. I know what's ahead of me-- a hospital birth with an obstetrician, and if it's anything like my other three, a lot of interventions based on the fear of the doctors and nurses (due to my white-coat hypertension). My doctor so far has been so cool and reassuring about the kind of birth I can have, but I guess I don't really believe she'll let me have it until I've seen it happen. So I'm doing all I can to prepare myself for a beautiful natural birth with plenty of hard work, but at the same time trying to prepare myself for the possibility that it might not work out that way.
--originally published 10/10/06
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