Ina May Gaskin

“I dreaded having a boring life when I grew up. And I certainly can't complain about being bored.”

“I had to learn not to let anyone push me around, to be brave and to say things I knew might make people mad.”

“We midwives and physicians have a lot to teach each other.”

“It is important to keep in mind that our bodies must work pretty well, or their wouldn't be so many humans on the planet.”

“The best a health care system can do is to equip itself to meet the needs of each individual woman and birth. Those needs run the gamut from undisturbed home birth to planned cesarean section.”

“It's very rare to see an undisturbed birth in a modern U.S. teaching hospital, but when you see a woman who isn't frightened, who's giving birth without interference, you stand back in awe and realize how little needed you are except in the rare circumstance.”

“I know of no country in the world that has passed a law specifically denying a woman's right to choose where she intends to give birth.”

“Many of our problems in US maternity care stem from the fact that we leave no room for recognizing when nature is smarter than we are.”

“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.”

“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?”

“The way a culture treats women in birth is a good indicator of how well women and their contributions to society are valued and honored.”

“It's good to laugh at times that feel inappropriate.”

“It would be a mistake, though, to consider care by family doctors or midwives inferior to that offered by obstetricians simply on the grounds that obstetricians need not refer care to a family physician or midwife if no complications develop during a course of labor.”