Simply put, when there is no home birth in a society, or when home birth is driven completely underground, essential knowledge of womenโs capacities in birth is lost to the people of that societyโto professional caregivers, as well as to the women of childbearing age themselves.
Ina May GaskinWhen you destroy midwives, you also destroy a body of knowledge that is shared by women, that canโt be put together by a bunch of surgeons or a bunch of male obstetricians, because physiologically, birth doesnโt happen the same way around surgeons, medically trained doctors, as it does around sympathetic women.
Ina May GaskinThe way a culture treats women in birth is a good indicator of how well women and their contributions to society are valued and honored.
Ina May Gaskin