I was surprised to see this documentary on the shelf at the library. I thought the only way to see it was through a live screening. I've seen it twice before but I giddily checked it out from the library and watched it again at home. This time, I viewed it with my 7-year-old daughter.
Ina May Gaskin has been called "the most famous midwife in the world." This film details how she got her start in midwifery and how The Farm Midwifery Center has developed and changed over the years.
Her husband, Stephen Gaskin was the founder of The Farm after he traveled the country on a speaking tour with a caravan of followers in the early 1970s. The Farm became the largest intentional community (commune) in the U.S. reaching a membership of 1000 at its peak.
"We had a dream to be in community, to help each other out, to raise our children in a different way and to take care of the planet." - Farm resident
With a large amount of young families, navigating birth quickly became a priority. Ina May assumed this role by chance but it became evident that this was her life's purpose and she has now been in midwifery for over 40 years.
"I've learned from books. I've learned from doctors. I've learned from midwives. A lot of stuff I've learned from women and allowing myself to be instructed by women." - Ina May Gaskin
The women of the original community would often get together to share their birth stories and eventually they turned them into written pieces.
"If a woman is afraid, she will not be relaxed. We were creating our own culture about birth and fear was not going to be a part of that." - Ina May Gaskin
A compilation of these stories was put together into a book entitled Spiritual Midwifery published in 1975. This book has now been distributed all over the world and is even used as a textbook in some countries.
"Midwives predate doctors but this profession is in danger of being wiped out by the ever increasing Cesarean rate... If nobody has labor there will be no need of a midwife and a lot of knowledge will be lost." - Ina May Gaskin
Currently, women are coming from all over the world to have their babies at The Farm, even as far as Africa. Families typically come a couple weeks before their baby is due and stay up to a week afterwards.
Ina May has been working on a project for many years,
The Safe Motherhood Quilt, which brings awareness to the increasing maternal death rate in the United States. America ranks 50th in maternal death despite the face that we spend more per capita than any other country. Ms. Gaskin maintains that this problem is fixable.
"We need more people to see real birth." - Ina May Gaskin
The Farm has delivered all types of babies in a variety of scenarios. They still train their midwives for breech deliveries which is currently not being taught in obstetrics. Ina May also has a technique named after her, The Gaskin Maneuver, that works well in a shoulder dystocia situation. The Farm Midwives have a large Amish population that they work with and continue to deliver those babies by candlelight with no running water. They do not induce women and have a very
low Cesarean rate.
"We still follow the same principals that we always did. You always do the least invasive thing first." -Ina May Gaskin
Overall, I felt this was a beautiful film that really captured the spirit of The Farm. They interviewed many of the retired midwives as well as the new generation of midwives who are filling the gap. Ina May is often seen at home with her husband Stephen and it's interesting to see how their love and respect for each other has grown over the years.
My daughter was hesitant about seeing the birth scenes at the start of the movie. She even said she didn't want to have babies. By the end of the film, she declared that she, in fact,
did want to have babies. Not only that, but she wants to have them at home in the tub with a doula and a midwife. As an aside, she also said she didn't want to go to the hospital because "they are too fancy and might mess something up." I love that she is being shown from an early age that there is nothing to fear about birth and it's an everyday, normal occurrence where fancy hospitals aren't required.
If you want to see
Birth Story, a digital download is available online or you can purchase the DVD. Or you may check your local library to see if they have it available, as mine did! ;) Be sure to check out the extras. They were full of great information too.
