Ina May Gaskin and Reducing Fear of Birth

Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM, PhD (Hon) is legendary in the world of Midwifery. She is founder and director of the 41 year old Farm Midwifery Center in Tennessee. 

Ina May Gaskin, photo credit: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/birth%20story

You can read a Bio of the lovely Ina May on her web site here.

One of my favorite 'birth prep' books is Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. It was the only book I found useful while awaiting my own birth journey and I have since lent it to many friends and family. Instead of filling your head with all the things that could possibly go wrong during labour, Ina May provides a much needed dose of positive birth stories and confidence boosting facts about the natural ability of a woman's body to birth a baby. She has an amazing ability to bring a pregnant woman and her obsessing thoughts back to the reality of the entirely natural process. Ina May focuses on reducing fear in labour and birth and talks much about the fear-pain response of a labouring woman. Much of the work a doula does before and during birth is to reduce that woman's fears and therefore the pain she experiences. I entered my labour with 100 percent confidence in myself and my body's ability to birth and believe Ina May's words have much to do with that.

 
Very Recently a movie was made called Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm midwives which look amazing. The trailer alone is beautiful.

Thank you Ina May for all that you do to empower women and families and allow people to view birth the way it should be - "unadorned, unabashed, and awe-inspiring"