Ina May Gaskin, CPM, (born March 8th, 1940)
Let your monkey do it.
When we as a society begin to value mothers as the givers and supporters of life, then we will see social change in ways that matter.
Pregnant and birthing mothers are elemental forces, in the same sense that gravity, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and hurricanes are elemental forces. In order to understand the laws of their energy flow, you have to love and respect them for their magnificence at the same time that you study them with the accuracy of a true scientist.
Why should insurance companies continue to get away with limiting the skills that a health profession has always previously required of its members if they were to be considered fully trained?
Squat 300 times a day, you’re going to give birth quickly.
If you can't be a hero, you can at least be funny while being a chicken.
The Creator is not a careless mechanic.
When a child is born, the entire Universe has to shift and make room. Another entity capable of free will, and therefore capable of becoming God, has been born.
It's good to laugh at times that feel inappropriate.
A society that places a low value on its mothers and the process of birth will suffer an array of negative repercussions for doing so. Good beginnings make a positive difference in the world, so it is worth our while to provide the best possible care for mothers and babies throughout this extraordinarily influential part of life.
Don't criticize nature, stand in awe of it.
Why should nutrition matter less in the creation of young humans than it does in young plants? I'm sure that it doesn't.
There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ they would brag about it. So should we
The human species is no more unsuited to give birth than any other of the 5,000 or so species of mammals on the planet. We are merely the most confused.
I have never observed even the slightest laceration in a woman who used clitoral stimulation as a relaxation method during birth. Clitoral stimulation seems to increase vaginal engorgement as the baby emerges.
I had to learn not to let anyone push me around, to be brave and to say things I knew might make people mad.
Whenever and however you give birth, your experience will impact your emotions, your mind, your body, and your spirit for the rest of your life.
Why do we, then, continue to treat women as if their emotions and comfort, and the postures they might want to assume while in labor, are against the rules?
Nothing in medical literature today communicates the idea that women's bodies are well-designed for birth. Ignorance of the capacities of women's bodies can flourish and quickly spread into the popular culture when the medical profession is unable to distinguish between ancient wisdom and superstitious belief.
If birth matters, midwives matter. In Europe, there are hospitals where the cesarean rate is less than 10%, and you'll find midwives in these hospitals, you'll see a lot less re-admissions with infections and complications, and you'll see a lot less injury to mothers.