Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin is a Certified Professional Midwife, who has been described as "the mother of authentic midwifery."[1] Gaskin, and her husband Stephen Gaskin, founded the famous intentional community, The Farm, in Summertown Tennessee, in 1971. There, Ina May and "The Midwives" of the Farm, created the first out-of-hospital birth center in the United States.[citation needed] Standards of birthing at the Farm are modeled to the recommendations of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Several family members and friends are commonly in attendance and are encouraged to take an active role in the birth.
According to Carol Lorente (1995), the work of Gaskin and the midwives might not have had the impact it did, if it hadn't been for the publication of her book Spiritual Midwifery (The Book Publishing Co., 1977):
- Considered a seminal work, it presented pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding from a fresh, natural and spiritual perspective, rather than the standard clinical viewpoint. In homebirth and midwifery circles, it made her a household name, and a widely respected teacher and writer.[2]
Gaskin has been attributed with the emergence and popularization of direct-entry midwifery in the United States since the early 1970s. She is publisher of the periodical Birth Gazette and an internationally-known speaker on maternity care issues for the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA).[1]
She is also the founder of the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project. The Safe Motherhood Quilt Project is a national effort developed to draw public attention to the current maternal death rates and to honor those women who have died of pregnancy-related causes during the past twenty years.[3]
Gaskin's Ina May's Guide to Childbirth was published in 2003.
Publications
- Induced and Seduced
- The undervalued art of vaginal breech birth: a skill every birth attendant should learn
- A Summary of Articles Published in English about Misoprostol (Cytotec) for Cervical Ripening or Induction of Labor
- Mother of Midwifery, Vegetarian Times (July, 1995)
Notes and references
- ^ a b Granju, K.A. (1999) "The midwife of modern midwifery" Salon.com, Brilliant Careers.
- ^ Lorente, C.W. "Mother of midwifery: Ina May Gaskin hopes to birth a local movement of midwives." Vegetarian Times, Special Women's Health Issue, July 1995.
- ^ The Quilt Project.
External links
- Ina May Gaskin Official website
- Safe Motherhood Quilt Project
- Farm Midwifry Workshops