Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives

Filmmakers Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore's documentary profiles Ina May Gaskin, whose advocacy—beginning in the 1970s—for home birth and natural childbirth had a significant impact on many women's views and experiences. In 1971, Gaskin's husband, Stephen, founded a communal society in Tennessee called the “Farm,” where Gaskin launched a Midwifery Center to help expectant mothers take some personal control over childbirth, which had long been directed by male physicians and hospital protocol. Birth Story traces the history of the Farm while also examining Gaskin's role as a midwife and teacher, along the way interweaving scenes of Gaskin at home and at work, with archival stills and footage of births and early Farm activities. Gaskin and various midwives past and present talk about Gaskin's 1977 book, Spiritual Midwifery, and the author shares what her own years of study and over 1,000 deliveries have taught her. In interviews and excerpts from public addresses, Gaskin describes the handling of breech babies (followed by video of one such birth by natural means), discusses how rarely C-sections and induction of labor are actually necessary, and explains “sphincter law,” i.e., the idea that fear and stress cause the vagina to clench. The film closes with a water birth at the Midwifery Center, with the mother needing zero assistance from midwives or family nearby. Highlighting an under-reported offshoot of the mid-20th-century feminist movement, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)