When 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 GaskinWhy in the world do the insurance companies get to be the boss of birth? That's what I want to know.
Ina May GaskinI had to learn not to let anyone push me around, to be brave and to say things I knew might make people mad.
Ina May GaskinSimply 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 Gaskin