Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives (2012) - full transcript

[chimes]

How did we get
so afraid of birth?

How did we get
so that

we have
millions of women

now
on this planet

who think that they're gonna
get through birth

more easily
if it's surgery?

And we've got a lot
of young women now

who think
that pregnancy

and giving birth
the old way

is gross.



♪

Is there anybody here who was
not born of a woman?

Okay.

So I don't see any
hands up, okay,

so we're still in
the same universe.

♪

We feel like
we're an order

of spiritual
revolutionary

lay free midwives.

And we feel that
the sacrament of birth

belongs with the family

and that in this last fifty
or sixty years

it's been more usurped
by what we feel

is basically a profit-oriented
hospital system.



♪

One thing that um, me
and the other midwives

did recently in addition
to baby delivering

is that we put together
this book

called "Spiritual Midwifery".

We wanted to get some
of that knowledge out

of what it's like when
a community

of as many people as we are,

what you learn out of
that experience.

♪

We feel like that there's
gonna be a certain number

of kids born anyway,
let's get off doing it.

♪

Baby.

Gorgeous.

This is amazing.

That wasn't too hard.

♪

♪

I can't walk
'cause it's just very...

Right.

That baby is very low.

He's very low
or she's very low, yeah.

Go ahead, Ina May.

She can hardly walk.

Well, I believe it!

Are you gonna help Ina May?

Yeah, she's all ready
for the measuring, yeah.

Baby's sunk down in there.

Uhhuh.

Yeah, right there,
like, oh God.

Okay.

What did you get,
Adeline?

Okay, so I don't know
what she has been measuring,

but she's about 37.

I think that's 'cause
the baby's so low,

it's not that the baby's
so small.

It's a very normal size baby.

Sounds excellent.

About 148.

Tell baby, "Hurry up
and come out.

So we can see you, baby."

If you want the baby
to come today, though,

you'd probably be wise
to do a lot of squats.

Oh, yeah.

Basically you
just go down

and then you go up

and then you go down

and then you go up,

then you go down,

then you go up.

Why don't you do that
three hundred times?

Three hundred times!

And we'll hope your legs
are not too sore to give birth.

I know!

A midwife means "with woman".

And so it's the woman
that stays with the woman

when she's having a baby.

Midwives have existed
as long as we know.

They predate doctors.

But this profession is
in danger of being wiped out

ah, by the ever increasing
caesarean rate.

Which is rising
all over the globe.

One woman in every three who's
pregnant in the U.S. today

will have a caesarean section.

In China it's approaching
fifty percent,

and in private
hospitals in Brazil

it's ninety-five
percent.

If nobody has labor

there'll be no need
for a midwife

and a lot of knowledge
will be lost

and a lot of surgery
will be done.

♪

I was born in
Marshalltown, Iowa.

I was really lucky
that my mother

didn't scare me about birth

when I first became
curious about it.

My mother said "A lot of people
yell and scream,

but it's really not necessary."

So I thought, "I guess birth
is kind of a test.

Kind of courage
is required."

My first birth,

I was ready to go
to a family doctor

because I didn't know
there was such a thing

as an obstetrician.

But a friend convinced me that
I should go to an obstetrician.

And the obstetrician,
I didn't like him that much,

but I thought I'd better tell
him before I had the baby

that I didn't want anesthesia.

That was just sort of
a last minute thought.

And I'll never forget
his response,

he looked at me like, "Oh, no.

You're gonna have
a forceps delivery."

A what?

A forceps delivery?

Why?

♪

The blade is attached
to the shank

at a forward angle.

This angle tends to correspond
to the angle of the pelvis

and is known as
the pelvic curve.

The obstetrician believed
that every first birth

should be forceps.

And told me that my baby would
likely get brain damage if not.

Didn't make much sense to me.

That nature would waste
all first borns

and give them brain damage
just because

they were
the first one out,

I just didn't believe that.

But how do you argue
with a doctor?

My strategy, see I thought
"There's a way around this."

And I thought, "I'll just
be so good

that I will have
some freedom."

I was real quiet
and I didn't complain

and I kind of put up
with the examinations

and the enema and the shaving
and all that.

Then when, suddenly,
people show up in masks

and start not talking to you
and they start tying down

hand and feet

and what kind
of movie am I in here?

They took me into
what looked like

a medieval torture chamber,

and then big episiotomy,
forceps, and all of this

and pulled my baby out

and then, you know, I saw
this bloody thing

being carried away
on newspaper.

They didn't let me
look at my baby

so when they finally
brought her to me a day later

I thought, "No,
she's not mine."

Actually, she was.

But I didn't recognize her
and that was very disturbing.

So I think that that was
a pretty strong lesson

in how you can take somebody

who's happy about
being pregnant,

well geared up to do it,

and then you can destroy
their confidence.

And when you're a mother
you want to feel confident.

So if they take it
all away from you

then where do you get it?

How do you get that back?

How do you,
you know?

So that became the
central challenge of my life.

I think it's kind of amazing

that in all
of the medical books

and the text books that get
written about birth

there's nothing about
a special energy

that surrounds birth.

And yet, to me, that seemed
like the central thing.

I felt like I was doing
something sacred.

And I was surprised that people

that were supposedly
taking care of me,

treated me like I was
somebody

who'd done something wrong.

I'd been married
for seven years.

I expected to be
treated well.

And I actually wasn't,

there wasn't any
kindness in it.

What if that was just
sort of like

rule number one?

Be nice.

How much would that change
what happens

in maternity wards
if that two word thing

were taken to heart?

A beeping machine might
make some people

feel more relaxed who are in
the risk management department,

but it does not
comfort the woman

in the way that a loving
and compassionate

human presence does.

Could you imagine
obstetricians singing?

"Let's try a song
before we cut.

You have the best vagina
I've ever seen.

Your pelvis is
without com--

you know, comparison.

I mean, you,

I'm so jealous
of your husband."

If that sort of
stuff started, I mean...

What would happen?

The woman break out
laughing in surprise

and a certain percentage of 'em
would dilate

and push the baby out

just from the hormonal change
that would take place.

I don't know how many.

I can only speculate.

But that's something
my intuition tells me.

[applause]

♪

[hammering]

♪

Thanks.

I'm trying to hang up
Ina May's

honorary PhD.

And it says "H-O-N" after it

and in Tennessee
that's pronounced "hun".

As in, "Hello, hun".

That looks pretty good now.

We've been together
since '68.

And ah,

so that's gettin' on to,

well, we're past
forty years, I guess.

He had some powerful women
in his background

and so he thought women
were supposed to be uppity.

And so he encouraged
uppitiness, I'll say,

and that was a great
relief for me, actually.

I didn't like
being held down.

Would you like
a sandwich?

After I got
my bachelor's degree

I went to Malaysia
in the Peace Corps.

And I was there
for two years.

I was married to
my first husband at the time.

♪

That was actually where I was
getting the early news

from the Vietnam War

and was excited to see
young people,

for the first time,

manifesting some power
in the world.

And of course the center
of the United States

from which all this energy
was being generated

was San Francisco.

♪ You can spread your wings ♪

♪ You can spread
your wings ♪

♪ You can open up and fly ♪

♪ Lift your voice and sing ♪

I wanted to be a hippie

the way little boys
want to be a cowboy.

In my last semester
of teaching

I didn't exactly get fired,

I just got too weird
to get rehired

by the time my contract
was expired.

And my old creative writing
teacher

just put it in a nutshell.

She said, "You have gone
too far".

Don't let your college interfere
with your education.

College folks tend to have
mass produced minds

as alike as a bunch
of Chevrolets.

Experimental colleges were
happening at that time.

And so I went and
talked to this guy

that I'd like to have
a place to talk

and he said, "Well, Monday night
is open."

But eventually started getting
quite a few people.

♪

We were a bunch of
the more intellectual

acid taking populations
of San Francisco.

We were taking a lot
of psychedelics.

Which can give you
a spiritual experience.

♪

People were spiritually
seeking.

I mean, that was a big part
of what was going on.

We were hugely
ecumenical.

And we knew swamis and yogis
and Zen masters.

Religions only seem different
when you deal with retailers.

If you deal with wholesalers
you'll find them

very much alike because
they're all coming

from the same distributor.

My first impression of Stephen
was that

he wasn't afraid.

I was finding that I had
a strength in me,

I knew I was good for something,

and being encouraged
to reach for that

was a very big thing for me.

There was a convention
in San Francisco of preachers

who had come to this convention
to discuss the hippies,

they'd come to San Francisco
to find out what it was about

'cause it started to happen
in the small towns.

And so I got to talk to them.

These ministers liked
what he said so much

that they got together
among themselves and said,

"Why don't we organize
a speaking tour

since they already live
in a school bus?"

A lot of us said, "Well,
can we come with you

to go around the country and
talk about nonviolence?"

So that's how the caravan
really started,

It was very spontaneous.

A bunch of us on
you know, trucks

or bread vans or school buses
and we became

a village on the road.

There were a few of us
that were pregnant

and that's where I
wanted to be.

And so I kinda talked my husband
into getting a bread truck and,

you know, we went along
on the caravan.

♪

I think the people that
were with us on the caravan,

those who were pregnant
had already formed

a little bit of a culture.

There were a number of women
that had had

their babies at home

and we were sharing
birth stories because I found

the first empowered-looking
women my age

were these women.

We were parked
in Evanston

on the campus
of Northwestern.

And Stephen was about
to go in and speak

to an auditorium of
three hundred people.

There was a knock on the door

and this kind of excited looking
young man comes in,

I didn't know him well.

And he was in the class.

"Stephen, can you come help me?

My wife is in labor and
she's gonna have the baby."

Why did they ask Stephen?

I think because he wasn't scared
of anything, it seemed,

but I could tell that Stephen
didn't know what to do

and so I said, "I'll go".

I stopped and got
my friend Pamela.

I was pregnant and
I wanted to help

some of the other ladies
that were pregnant, too,

on the caravan.

Once I was helping women,
I fell in love with women.

Like that first lady.

When she looked into my eyes,

you can't help but love someone,
you know,

who's working that hard
and putting out great,

pure effort
to have a baby.

And it was a beautiful birth.

I was on cloud nine.

Just seeing the power
and the beauty of that woman

showed me something
that has never left.

I knew that was what
I was meant for.

It must have been
about three weeks out

that I went into
kinda early labor.

Somebody started to read,
well, what do you do

if the baby turns blue.

And somebody else who, actually,
later became a doctor,

said "Don't, no,
don't read that

because if we read that
it might happen".

I didn't have enough gumption
to pull it back and say,

"That's superstitious"
and read um, and um,

so when the baby was born
and didn't breathe

nobody knew what to do.

Faye Lee ran into
Stephen's bus

and her look,
the look on her face

was all he needed
and he came over,

he had been a medic
in Korea,

and he came in and did
mouth-to-mouth and I...

I'm still
grateful to Stephen

and it's a lifelong
gratitude.

♪

For me that was a very,
very big lesson

in responsibility.

♪

You don't need to do that one.

There's nothing in there good.

But the petunia...

That poor little thing
needs help.

♪

♪

I'm having twins and so
I'm looking into options.

The Farm has been recommended.

If you can give me
a call back...

Baby's dropped a little bit.

Yeah, feels like it.

That's exciting.

Yeah.

And a few little cramps.

Can I check down here?

Might be in an OP position.

What does that mean?

It means it's face up
and it'll probably rotate.

I wondered when I felt it.

-Face up, okay.
-Yeah.

So is there anything I can do
to encourage it to roll around?

Just mop the kitchen floor.

Okay, hands and knees?

On hands and knees, yeah.

Call if your water bag breaks,
if you have any bloody show,

and then call if you have
regular contractions

five minutes or less apart
and they're coming,

they're coming on stronger.

Okay.

It will give me a heads up
and I'll know to stick around,

I won't go anywhere.

Okay.

Yeah.

And especially if
your water bag breaks,

I need to know that.

Okay.

Okay.

And um, any questions?

No.

Okay.

Okay.

I think we're good.

-Okay, thank you.
-Okay.

I'll see you at
the swimming hole.

Yeah.

Okay, come into my office.

My bag
has become

a hanging thing
that has everything in it.

You know, syringes, um,
needles,

some of the sutures
are in here.

I've got um...

Hip cleanse,
borage oil

and the pieces to my--

What is borage oil?

Borage oil helps
soften the cervix.

It's really nice
to use in labor.

It's our baby emergency
equipment.

We each have one of these.

I did a birth and
we got paid very well

through insurance

and we were able
to purchase a kit

for every midwife.

We have it all set up
at the birth

even though we haven't
used it in many years.

But it's there.

Yeah, when people think
that we don't take

anything with us,

it's more like we bring
a hospital to you.

Okay.

Hi!

How are you doing?

Oh, good,
I'm in labor.

Oh, great!

Wonderful!

So, what's happening?

Um, they're
how far apart?

Um, six minutes.

Every six minutes.

Yeah.

Okay, I need to go
get my things

and get set up.

Just get as comfortable
as you can.

Okay.

Okay.

♪

♪

Joanne, Stephanie's
having her baby.

♪

Okay.
Okay.

♪

Beautiful day for a baby.

Couldn't be better.

The universe is in balance,
that's what it feels like,

that's what I feel like.

Okay, I'm comin' in.

Yeah.

Yeah, it feels okay.

She started really
coming on, sissy.

Why me?

What?

Just blows your mind
every time.

Gonna be doing it right.

You must be pretty near
complete dilation.

Good.

[pained breathing]

Ohhh, ohhh.

That's the baby's head.

Yes.

There's several things
happening.

It's like, this is the most pain
I've ever felt before

and this is the best
I've ever felt.

It's a lot about
the hormones.

Getting close to
the end of labor

your progesterone levels
are high

and your estrogen levels
go up

almost a thousand times
what they usually are.

Now there's oxytocin
in there, too.

Oxytocin is the hormone
that you get

when you make love.

It's a hormone that happens
when ah,

when you have orgasm,

and it's the hormone
that you have at birth.

In fact, that's when levels
are higher

than they'll ever be
any other time in your life.

So if you're having a baby

and you're complaining
and going,

"Oh, this is awful,
ah, I can't do this,

ow, take it away,"

this is gonna block some
of that oxytocin.

You're not gonna get
the full effect

of that oxytocin.

If you're laying there
and going, "Ah, ah".

Now during the rush,
yeah,

during the rushes
it's gonna be hard.

You have to breathe through it.

And then, after the rush is
over,

then your body can relax
and you can enjoy

this marvelous wonderful
feeling that you have

pushing this baby out.

Is it okay to push now?

Think so.

Don't push heavily
at first,

just start to do it
real gradually.

Okay.

[moaning]

Good.

Head's in the birth canal.

It's okay, you guys.

This is the way
you all came out.

Gonna be real soon now.

Great.

Almost got it.

Yeah.

All right.

Push a little bit there.

Yeah.

All right.

[groaning]

Yeah, oh yeah.

Yeah.

Great, yeah.

It's a boy.

It's a boy!

Sandy.

Blankets?

[baby crying]

Let's come see her.

Oh, baby.

You'd probably like to see
your mother, wouldn't you?

Oh, sweet baby.

All I knew is when
I pushed that baby out

it was the best feeling
I could ever imagine.

It felt so good that about
an hour after

the baby was born I said,
"I wanna do that again."

Ina May said, "Let's wait
a while, okay?"

Robin, what are you doing?

You want some attention or what?

Hello, Robin,
hi, girl.

Hello, girl.

She's thirty-some
years old.

And a cute butt
for that age.

♪

We got back to San Francisco
after the caravan.

The scene which was
going decadent when we left,

was way far decadent.

And there was cocaine
and heroin

and alcohol
and money and guns.

The whole hippie movement
had really kinda turned sour

and we wanted to
differentiate ourselves

from a lot of that,

the really crazy stuff
that was going on.

To, like, leave your bread truck
and go rent an apartment

and go back to
your ordinary life

when we had become
a village on the road

seemed not the right
thing to do.

So we decided to buy land.

But the land in California
was so expensive.

Stephen's bus pulls up,
he jumps out of his bus,

jumps onto our bus and says

"What do you think
about Tennessee?"

And John, how was one of
the guys on our bus,

said, "Do we have time
to do the dishes?"

And he said, "A week,
we'll give you a week."

♪

The prospect of
three hundred hippies

descending on a small town
ordinarily might frighten

many of
the local residents.

But the hippie caravan that
traveled recently

from San Francisco
to Nashville,

there was a difference.

We decided on Tennessee
because this was a place

where people were friendly.

People that know this piece
of ground for fifty years

come up and tell us what
they used to grow

up these hollows and just
really friendly

and a lot of cooperation.

Were you surprised
with this reaction?

Not really because uh,
we be honest people

and we don't be
a hassle to anybody

and we work pretty hard at that.

♪ Well, I've been
a-workin' all day ♪

♪ Lordy, don't you know
that I'm a happy man ♪

♪ When I come home
in the evening ♪

♪ My lady is waitin' just to
take me by the hand ♪

♪ Doing the Lord's work ♪

♪ Gettin' on with
each other, now ♪

♪ Doing the Lord's work ♪

♪ And we're doing
the best we can ♪

♪ We're doing the Lord's work ♪

♪ Gettin' on with
each other, now ♪

We were communal.

I mean, we worked together,
we started being communal

in our thought with each other
way back in San Francisco.

♪

We really had a dream
to be in community,

to help each other out,
to raise our children

in a better way.

And to take care
of the planet.

♪

[singing sustained note]

It is obvious that if you
let the energy

flow freely among us,

that you cannot stand by
while somebody else is hungry

when you can feed 'em.

And that you cannot let
somebody be crazy

from loneliness
and lack of friendship

when you can be their friend
and help heal them.

And that you can't
put somebody outside

while there's a roof
to put somebody under.

At the peak, 73 people
lived in this house.

When we moved in
a few years later

we had 58 people.

Twenty-eight of them were kids,

and we lived with
two midwives

so we had a birthing room
that had a turnaround

of approximately every
six to eight weeks.

The midwives were such
an integral part

of the community.

We were all young families
having babies

and this was a life
and death thing

living way back
in the woods like this.

We prioritized the midwives.

They were the ones
that made sure

that we had
a vehicle running

even it was and old,
beat up truck.

Somebody would go
to the motor pool

and work on it at night

so the midwives could
jump in the truck

and go down any
of these rocky roads

and deliver a baby
at any hour.

How many people
live on The Farm?

Okay, right now there's about
120 residents

and we all pay dues
into The Farm.

We own the land in common,

but we all own equity
in our own homes.

How many births do you
do in a month?

Probably four to eight
births a month.

There's seven of us.

Now, Ina May's traveling a lot.

At least half of
our practice is Amish,

maybe more.

So they're local.

And then people come up
from Alabama.

Right now Alabama has a law
that makes it illegal

for midwives to practice

and they will put you
in jail down there.

So those women
come up here.

The families come about
three weeks

before their due date
and stay anywhere

from three to five days.

We just had a family that
stayed for a month after.

They were from Cairo,
by the way,

they came over from Cairo
to have their baby.

That's awesome.

-Pamela?
-Yeah?

How, emergency services,
if you needed them,

what happens?

We get 'em
in about 15 minutes.

But um, we transport
before it's an emergency.

Right.

Yay!

You know?

We don't wait.

Right.

Yeah.

This is our Tower Road
cabin.

This is the cabin the fir--

We built this cabin
in 1971.

We've delivered about
five hundred babies here.

It's rustic.

We're getting ready to do
some upgrades on it.

A lot of people want
to have their baby here

because of
the history that's here

and because of
the beautiful pinewoods

right in back of you.

Okay, say, "Hurry".

Hurry!

Okay, one more.

In order to have
midwives

I trained them.

And I got my pick from
several hundred women.

I could recruit somebody
and say, you know,

"I'd like you"--

I wouldn't say, "I want you
to be my midwife"

but that was sort of
my criteria.

I've learned from books,
I've learned from doctors,

I've learned from midwives.

But I find that a lot
of the stuff I've learned

by listening to women
and allowing myself

to be instructed by women.

We were actually making
our own culture about birth

in which fear was not
gonna be a big part.

If a woman's afraid
she won't be relaxed

so you kinda go,
"What's gonna work with her?

Am I going to help her
relax physically?

Am I going to help her relax
by showing her a technique

of breathing more slowly
and more deeply,

which is a big one.

Or am I just going to
help her laugh?

[belches]

[all laughing]

In one case I realized
that I was dealing a woman

whose baby was coming fast.

She needed to relax fast
or she was gonna

get a big tear and she was
gonna have a lot of pain.

And I thought, "Hey,
she's a singer.

If I got her to sing
she'd relax."

And that was just an idea
that occurred to me,

I grabbed it, she did it,
and it worked.

"Do not hold the mother's
legs together

to delay delivery."

Labor is divided
in three stages.

Ina May was pretty intrepid
and brave

and I learned a lot from her.

She was my teacher.

She, you know,
she was learning all the time.

Everyone was learning.

We, we just started out
on a wing and a prayer

in my opinion.

I would take responsibility
for sterilizing

the birthing packs

which really meant we had
sheets and towels

and instruments all wrapped up
in multiple layers

of paper bags and roasted
in the oven for like,

on low heat for like,
five or six hours.

So I went to a lot of births
before I ever

started delivering babies.

After about six months
of just helping out

any way I could,
they called me and said

would I like to come
to a birthing.

I was the first one there
and I just helped her through

each contraction
and each rush,

we called them "rushes".

It really makes
a huge difference

having someone there
that is willing

to look you in the eyes
and breathe with you.

I started just holding
the flashlight so they could see

and then they started asking
me to come and teach me

how to check dilation so
that I could set with somebody

during labor.

At the time when I
started practicing

we also had two doctors
on the farm

as well as an ambulance.

We had oxygen and pitocin
and epinephrine.

At deliveries we were
really set up.

There we were with
life and death situations

trusting each other.

It was a wonderful thing

and it was a really wonderful
way to have a baby.

[phone rings]

I'm doing it.

Yes.

Not by myself at all,
I have lots of help.

Lots of midwives and friends
and everything.

Right, it's almost here,

I'll call you back
when it's here, okay?

Okay, I love you.

Up here is sumac.

Right up there, see,
with the berries?

And you can put them
in a big pot and boil it up

and it makes a red tea,
make jelly out of it.

The Indians used to use this
for birth control.

Queen Anne's Lace.

You have to be careful because
it looks a lot like hemlock.

So you have to really know
what you're picking.

So now we're going down
into the meditation meadow

and this is where
we used to meditate.

On Sunday mornings
we did sunrise services

and we still have
women's circles down here.

We brought a pregnant lady
up here one time

and she was just
ready to deliver

and she had some issues,
you know,

that she hadn't brought out,
some abuse issues,

and we got up this far
and she says,

"I need to talk".

And she talked, you know,

she told us about
what she had

that was bothering her,

and she went into labor
the very following day.

And sometimes
those kind of things

can kind of hold back labor.

I discovered that they had
at the medical library

old books that they sometimes
wanted to get rid of.

I went, "Oh, let me at it"

because I've always
loved old books

and you can get
some very good descriptions

of how to do
a breech delivery

from an older book,

much better descriptions
than you would get

from a modern book.

They had nice drawings.

Here's one,
"Painless Child Birth"

by J.H. Dye M.D. Buffalo,
New York,

1888.

Is pain necessary?

And he says, "No" so he
essentially agrees with me.

Here's another doctor
who published

in early twentieth century.

Alice Stockham.

She advised
women to

not wear corsets

because corsets don't allow you
to breathe freely.

She advised you to walk.

She advised you
to eat vegetables,

eat a good diet.

So she
very much um,

believed
in birth,

in the abilities of women
in the same way

that we do today.

So she's pretty cool.

This one's kind of interesting.

This is the 16th edition
of "Williams Obstetrics".

This is
the most used

obstetrics
text book.

And if you look up
in the index,

"Chauvinism, male,
voluminous amounts,

pages 1-1102".

The story is that one of
the editors' wives...

...slipped that one in there.

♪

All right, now on
"Morning Magazine"

I'd like you to meet two
very interesting people,

Stephen and Ina May Gaskin.

Each of them have
written a book

and I don't know quite
which book

to talk about first.

Ina May, yours is called
"Spiritual Midwifery"

or midwifery
and you are a midwife.

"Rendered Infamous" is the name
of your book, Stephen.

I am rendered infamous.

You have been rendered infamous,
have you?

I think the last time we talked
we established the fact

that both of you live on
a community called The Farm

down in Tennessee.

We're, I think, the largest
alternative directed community

in the United States.

And we do all of
the normal services

you would find in
a small village

of a thousand people.

Our book publishing company's
one of our cottage industries,

how we make it.

Somebody got an inheritance
and we said,

"Well, we should do
something with that

that would maybe potentially
earn us something.

So why don't we buy
a printing press

and make a book about
what we're doing?"

'Cause we were
all excited.

This came out 1974.

So the first edition of
"Spiritual Midwifery"

was actually 1975.

♪

And so how that started
was that women themselves

wrote their birth stories.

And when I read them I thought,
"Wow this is good writing."

♪

All I remember is us going
out to Ina May's

and sitting on her bed for
hours and hours and hours

and telling stories
and writing.

Then we took our idea to
the women in the community

and said, "Write your birth
stories".

So it wasn't just
the midwives,

it was a whole community
of women

and all of us were realizing
you could actually give birth

on a farm with no running water
and no electricity

and everything
would be okay.

And, of course,
we were right next

to this Amish community
who'd been doing it

for several generations.

And I believe it was Stephen
who said

you have to actually write about
what you the midwives do

that's special.

How do you prepare,
what equipment do you have,

what are the safety factors
and so forth?

We felt like this was spiritual,
what we were doing,

this was the spiritual beginning
of every family.

♪

We chose a great art director

and we had a whole room
full of artists at work.

♪

The artist that
drew this picture

was at my daughter,
Sally's birth.

And it was the center foldout
of the original

"Spiritual Midwifery".

♪

I like that,
let me see.

♪

So that's Ann.

I led Stephen by the hand
after her birth.

He couldn't see two inches
in front of him.

So I took him by the hand
and led him,

that's the only reason
I was at that birth.

I really had no,
I mean, yeah.

And we went through one phase
where for some reason

it was more spiritually evolved
not to wear glasses.

-And so...
-It was--

I drew that picture.

Count yourself fortunate you
weren't on the road with us

at that time.

Oh, good, Cara.

Oh well, I caught that.

Oh, I took that photo.

While my midwife was
checking my dilation.

♪

There are some lulls in between
when you can do

anything you want and we
were just yakkin'

and I grabbed the camera.

I'm checking her and
she's opening, she's opening,

she's opening and
she's taking my picture

while she's doing it.

Yeah.

♪

Yup, that summer day.

♪

And then I think I took
that photo

a little while later
'cause that's who was born.

The response was enormous.

I mean, the printing presses
started running 24 hours,

seven days a week.

And we still couldn't
keep up with it.

Couldn't print fast enough.

And there was that thirst.

I mean, it wasn't just
a few hippies

that were interested in,
in better birth.

I mean, it was all kinds
of people.

Women were tired of
going to the hospital

all over the country.

One of our couples went
to the hospital handcuffed

because they didn't want
to be split up.

At the time they were
making the husbands

wait in
the waiting room

while the women
had her baby.

And we though, "Nuts to that"
you know?

"He helped me get
this baby in here,

why should he
go somewhere else?"

♪

We delivered babies for people
from our own community,

but then lots of people
came to us

from other places
around the country

because there weren't
very many options at that time.

There were some months where
we had thirty babies

in a month.

"Spituele Verlos-kunde"
is Dutch

and "Pateria
Espiritual"in Spanish,

this is recently printed
in Argentina.

And then in German
they had to put it

into two books 'cause
German words are long.

The book in Dutch, um,
I was told that a doctor

made it part of
the curriculum,

curriculum for
the midwifery course

'cause she said what we did
here was authentic midwifery.

Bear left.

Kilpeck.

Kilpeck.

Kilpeck Church.

Do you want--

Yeah, you skipped a sign.

Yeah.

There's our sheela.

So we've got all kinds
of faces looking down.

Oh, look.

Cute little pig, actually.

Oh, here she is,
here she is.

Wow.

She's a good size
and she's so cute.

And she's the one who was
described

by the Victorian
men

as the fool trying
to tear his heart out.

Men of great imagination.

Oh, how beautiful.

The first figure on the apse
is a sheela na gig,

either a Celtic
fertility symbol

or a warning against
the sins of the flesh.

I put the image of
the Kilpeck sheela in my book

because I thought
"Ah!

That would be so good
to take to a birth

to show a woman what
she's capable of.

It would take away
a lot of fear".

And I learned that actually
from a woman

who was having
her first baby

and the baby was breech.

In this case coming butt first
with his feet

up by his ears.

And she was a bit afraid.

When she was in labor then
I noticed she star--

just started to push the baby
and he wasn't really

pressing her open yet,
but she was already huge.

She looked like she'd have
seven babies already

and here was this
first time mother

showing me something
I'd never seen before

and I'd been at more
than a thousand births.

So I made a note in my head,
I'm gonna ask her

how she did that.

And she says, "Well,
every time I pushed

I used that mantra
you gave me".

And I said, "I didn't know
I gave you a mantra,

what, what was,
what do you mean?"

Well, she said "We were
at the swimming hole

and I was worried and you said
'You're gonna get huge'

and every time I pushed I
thought 'I'm gonna get huge'".

And I thought, ah,
visualization.

Powerful.

I'd like to welcome Ina May.

You've been an inspiration
to a generation

of childbirth educators
in this country.

And whenever anybody I know
gets pregnant

and they say, you know,

"Tell me a book I need to get,"
I say, "Spiritual Midwifery"

because I thought if
somebody read that book

they would realize actually
women had an innate ability

to give birth.

So without any more ado,
I welcome Ina May.

[applause]

So we'll take up sphincter law.

I've always assumed
that the cervix

behaves like a sphincter.

Even though technically speaking
it isn't, exactly,

but there's the anatomical
definition.

The ring shaped muscle that
surrounds a natural opening

and it uh, we have
many sphincters.

But there are basic,

basic facts and behaviors
of sphincters,

ah, they're shy.

That's why you have
doors on toilets.

They don't open well
while being observed.

You, how many of you
have children?

Many of you.

So when your toddler
goes over in the corner

in the morning

and is
very, very quiet

you know what's going on,
don't you?

So, I mean, they don't
have to be taught

to seek privacy,
it's instinctual.

Now let's say
you're in the toilet

and you're about
halfway through a poo

and the fire alarm
or the bomb alarm

or something goes off.

What happens?

Closes, doesn't it?

And what are we
afraid of, you know,

with breech they're so afraid
that the baby's head

gets caught in the cervix.

Well, my observation is

if you're calm,

and then trust in your body,
you stay open.

But if somebody comes in
and scares the hell out of you,

you know, and so for me

the way you protect and
keep a breech birth

from going awry is you have
a very fierce midwife

or doula or husband
that will

keep intruders
out of the room

from disturbing the birth.

Through the '80s and '90s
we had people coming here

from all over the U.S.
because

as the older doctors that
were familiar had been taught

how to deal with breech birth
were retiring or dying off,

nobody was
learning it

in the medical school
anymore.

How could you dumb down
your profession?

Well, I found out it
wasn't even the decision

of the professional
organizations for the doctors,

it was actually
insurance companies

that were dictating this
to them.

For breech birth with
the head coming out last

you have a time limit.

So you need to get
the baby's head out

within five minutes
or so

after the rest of
the body comes out.

And so it's a lost art.

This is for calming the baby,

you'll continue to see
that dark brown, black

tarry stuff and it's fine.

Okay.

Just means the baby's breech.

Sometimes a baby will
turn during labor.

Now what happens if you've
never seen a breech birth

and you haven't even seen it
well described

in your text book?

Panic.

Panic is exactly what
you don't need

when you have a sudden diagnosis
of a breech birth

because the panic on the part
of the doctor and the midwife

will scare the woman and
the sphincter law kicks in.

And so the baby would either,
can get caught, in fact,

the head actually
can get caught

if the cervix
closes round it.

Well, that's
the ultimate nightmare

and we've never
had that happen.

We've always
kept the room really calm.

Brings it on, yeah?

That's the way,

you gotta pass through
this place.

Time to check your dilation.

It's wonderful.

Water bag's moving down,
beautiful, hun,

it's coming.

Curl your head forward.

You're doing beautifully.

Your time is getting close.

Let's get him now.

Oh.

Ouch!

It's okay,
it's okay, baby.

[indistinct dialogue]

Right now you're working
on the right hip.

Ahhh!

It's okay, it's okay.

Oh, baby, ow!

Here she comes.

She's coming,
she's coming.

Here she comes.

Don't hold your breath.

There you go.

Got her thighs out.

It's coming.

Come on baby, come out!

Bring your head up
a little bit

and that'll help her,
that'll help her come,

that's a girl,
that's beautiful.

Bring your head forwards.

Good.

Come on.

Okay.

Now comes the cord.

Oh, oh it hurts now.

You wanna push?

There you go,
come on.

Ah!

Okay, that's good babe.

Very good, very good.

That's got it now.

Aaaahhh!

All right!

Beautiful baby.

Good girl.

Look at her, honey.

Look over here.

Oh.

She is gorgeous.

She's beautiful.

Well, she did it.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you for hangin' in there.

I knew you could.

♪ Midwife she was
called back then ♪

♪ Mercy's angel,
neighbor, friend ♪

♪ Always came
to help you when ♪

♪ Your time was at hand ♪

♪ Winter, summer,
spring or fall ♪

♪ Often there would
come a call ♪

♪ Middle of
the night and all ♪

♪ Margaret, won't you come ♪

♪ Working hard
into the night ♪

♪ Candle, lamp,
or firelight ♪

♪ Knowing everything's
all right ♪

♪ When that baby comes ♪

♪ Midwife she was
called back then ♪

♪ Mercy's angel,
neighbor, friend ♪

♪ Always came
to help you when ♪

♪ Your time was at hand ♪

Isn't that beautiful?

And then I got
this little one

off of an old cassette tape
called "Goddess Songs".

It's a great song for
a woman in labor to sing,

it goes:

♪ I am feeling
very open ♪

♪ Like a flower
in the morn ♪

♪ Let my petals open ♪

♪ Let my child be born ♪

Isn't that neat?

I've not yet met
a birthing mother

who's tried that but I think
it would be a great song

to speed labor along
a little bit.

My next kid.

Soft.

We freeze 'em and
in the middle of winter

we have these
nice blueberries.

We also eat a lot
right now.

In fact, you can eat
as many blueberries,

here, let me give you
a bowl of blueberries.

Here, I'll pick out
the best ones.

Blueberries through winter.

My nearly forty year
career in birth

has really demonstrated
to me

how birth after birth
after birth after birth

after birth worked.

But, you know,
180-some before

I had a c-section
so that taught me it worked,

that there was nothing wrong
with the American woman's pelvis

and she didn't grow too big
a baby for her body.

But I also knew
from my study of obstetrics

in the U.S. that you can
do too much of intervention

and now you can
make it dangerous.

The number of women who die
during childbirth in America

is increasing.

California reports
that it tripled

in the last ten years.

And it crosses social
and economic lines

and raises questions about
some caesarean sections.

The causes are complex.

Sometimes a caesarean
is necessary.

This is always
gonna be true.

And you will find no midwives
that will ever say

we should do away
with obstetricians.

Yeah, sometimes
you want a hospital

and you want a c-section
now and then.

You don't just do it
to everybody.

And see, that's where
I think the danger's come in.

Is when you go--

when you get preemptive
about it.

Because we might need that
let's just go right there.

To me that's what you're doing
when you have

a scheduled cesarean
for no good reason,

for a non medical reason.

That's trying to make it
be

that major abdominal surgery
isn't dangerous.

Of course it's dangerous.

The same goes
for induction.

Farmers would never do that
with valuable animals,

you wouldn't, you know,
induce a mare's labor,

you wouldn't induce
an elephant's labor.

I mean, or like,
try it.

You wouldn't do that
because things

are so apt to go wrong.

Each one of these quilt blocks
represents a U.S. woman's death.

These are 2008 deaths.

Got a lot of them.

The CDC says that
at least half of the deaths

could be prevented

and it seems that we're missing
a great deal of data

in the United States
and that we don't make

a big enough effort to try
to get it all.

Unfortunately it's perceived
as being against

the interest
of the hospitals,

but hospitals are
to serve people.

And so it seems to me
that we've got to be

about the interest
of a mother.

♪

Okay.

I'll call you.

Take care.

Yes.

Water my plants, please.

Yes, Ma'am.

Okay.

♪

♪

I've got more than
a hundred volunteers

who've done this stitching.

And I've got 17 more
like this.

That's how many--

And I've heard of
more deaths

than I've been able
to get names for.

So this is a big problem.

It's fixable is
the important thing to know.

This should not scare
women that--

about being pregnant,
that's not our purpose here.

We have to lower it to
no more than three deaths

per hundred thousand.

When we're having eighty deaths
per hundred thousand

of African-American women
in New York City

we know something
is really wrong.

Where does the U.S. rank
in comparison to other nations

when it comes to
maternal mortality?

Fiftieth.

Fiftieth.

And that's despite the fact
that we spend more per capita

on the more than four million
women who give birth

every year.

We need to change some aspects
of medical education,

nursing education,

and we need a lot more
midwives.

♪ We are one in the spirit ♪

♪ We are one in the soul ♪

♪ And we know
that our unity ♪

♪ Will this day unfold ♪

♪ And we know... ♪

Amazing.

Wow.

This is some real
historical stuff.

♪ And we know we're
a family by our love ♪

Hi, my name is Etta Willis,
I come from Guatemala

and I work in a village,
San Andrés Itzapa.

I received 2,802 children

in 19 years,
thank you.

That's Etta.

And she's who I learned
the Gaskin Maneuver from.

I didn't invent it,
I'm spreading the word.

Now most babies,

they can move their shoulders
through there okay,

but sometimes you get a baby
with wider shoulders

and the mother's in this
compressed position.

So when you turn over
her pelvis tends

to open a little.

And if you need, even,
I mean,

usually what'll happen is
the baby will just be born.

So I was extremely lucky
to learn that

from that story
that Etta told me.

She thought it was important
that I know that.

And I could always tell if
a midwife

knew more than I did.

So I would just shut up
and listen to her.

We were lucky to
record a birth

that was a shoulder dystocia.

One of our midwives,
Carol, fourth baby,

was a shoulder dystocia.

Ten and a half pound baby.

It's really stretching open.

It's pushing and
turning around.

When the contractions started
and I called the midwife

and she came over
and checked me

and said I was four centimeters.

And I felt like I was
much more than four centimeters.

And I knew then that I was gonna
have to really stretch

to integrate it all.

One of the things that
always worked for me in labor

was to make out
with my husband.

And he loved it, you know,

he said it as
the best time ever

that we ever had.

Push very gently,
Carol.

The baby's head is
starting to crown.

Okay.

Let's take it just--

You can hold it there for now.

I don't know if I can.

You're doing good.

That's really nice, Carol.

If your belly weren't so big
you could see the baby's head.

Okay, here it comes.

Okay, you could push
a little more.

Oh, hello, there.

Look at that face.

Push it out.

Okay, push, babe.

Come on, honey, come on.

Okay.

Put this knee over here.

Way over?

Yeah, like that.

Okay, you wanna take
a deep breath

and you wanna push?

Take a deep breath.

Okay, let's get her on
her hands and knees.

I'm gonna flip you over
on your hands and knees.

Okay.

Now take a deep breath.

Okay, now push, honey.

That's good.

Good, good.

Hello, baby.

Good.

All right, sweetheart.

It's a girl.

Carol, she is a huge baby.

Hello, sweetie.

Yeah.

Are you gonna cry?

Hello.

She's startin' to cry.

She's got a very strong grip.

The other midwife
that was there, Diane,

is actually the one who said
"Maybe we should flip her over".

The first thought in my mind
was, "Yeah, right".

You know, here I am with
this fat head stickin' out

from between my legs

I'm just gonna flip
right over, you know?

And that was kind of
my first thought.

And then the gravity
of the situation

really hit me and I'm like,
"Yeah, you're gonna flip over.

Get up off your butt, girl,
and do it".

She is a good baby.

Oh.

We're gonna give you
to your mommy.

It was good to flip over.

Yeah, it sure did.

You could really see
the immediate loosening.

Yeah.

A lot more room.

Mhmm.

Luckily we did get
a good video of it

because I know
it's really helped

save some babies' lives.

♪

♪

When you kind of signed up
to come on The Farm

one of the things that
you were supposed to agree to

besides um,
being voluntary peasants

was that Stephen was
your spiritual teacher.

I would say that evolved
over time, you know,

as we,

or as I got older.

Saw that he wasn't
perfect either, you know,

that he was a fallible
human being.

Was just really hard leaving
that very austere lifestyle.

When I hit my thirties
I started thinking

do I wanna live
in a situation

where I'm poor all the time?

We had an open gate,

we were trying to
save the world

and take care of everybody.

You can't do it that way.

The one thing I really learned
is you have to start

with your family
and be strong there

and be healthy

and then you can expand
and help other people.

It was too many people for
that amount of infrastructure.

And I think also we got
more well-known

and more and more people
were coming in

to have their babies.

Other people felt like,
"Well, wait a minute,

we're not charging a red dime,

and these folks are coming in
for, like six weeks

before they have their baby?"

We left earlier than
a lot of people,

we left in 1981.

Then later there was
really more of a,

really more of an exodus.

Mass exodus.

Yeah.

We learned our lessons that
we were meant to learn together

and some of us were
meant to stay there

and a lot of us
were meant to just--

You now, it's like
a dandelion.

You blow on it and it just,
it goes all over,

and we did,
we went all over the world.

It was hard, I cried
all the way out the gate.

Took me about three hours
to get it together.

Even though I really
wanted to go

and it was time to go,
it was mourning a dream.

It was a wonderful experiment.

And it survived.

Kid Herd,
the next generation.

When there were a thousand of us
we baby sat 'em,

and we called it Kid Herd.

This is beautiful,
I'm so grateful.

Push back and forth
all the way down

and see if you can feel
where the back is,

what the little parts are.

I'll try.

So you think it's breech
with the back where?

Here.

Here, okay,
let's take a look.

That's right.

And see, it's kinda down...

You always do the least
invasive thing first.

So we'll assume that you've
down all the,

"Are you ready and
is it okay if I do this"

and all that.

We're starting to train
some young midwives.

They've come to
some births with us.

They do study groups.

Oh, look at
your pretty belly!

Oh my gosh,
you've grown.

I think I have, I feel.

Well, you're having a little
rush right now

so we'll wait a second.

Yeah.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

Stacie has turned into
a Farm midwife.

I delivered one
of her babies

and she said she wanted
to help us.

And so I started to take her
to a few Amish birthings

and she started to study.

It took her, like,
ten or twelve years

to go through the whole
certification process.

Now she's a very good midwife.

All right,
your blood pressure's good.

Anybody can learn
medical skills.

But I think some of
the biggest things

that I've learned from them
is listening to yourself

and the energy
of birth

and really
being in love

with the birthing process
and that mom that's in labor

and those kinds of things.

It goes a lot deeper
than just skills.

So, shall we do
the thing with the hips?

Yes, please.

So we're gonna go
this way first.

Yeah, push me up.

Oh, thank you.

Worked out kind of
a routine.

That's our dance routine.

We still follow the same
principles that we always did.

And the relationships
changed a little bit

as you start to get gray hair
and you're old enough

to be the grandma
of the baby born,

that's a little different.

Gives you a little more,
the gray hair, I've noticed,

I have a little more
say with the doctors.

That's true.

You know, I go into
the hospital and I say,

"this lady needs
this and this".

"Okay, that sounds good."

I mean, you know.

The doctors listen to us
with gray hair.

That's nice, I like that.

We have a profession where
you don't wanna color your hair

to make yourself seem younger.

It actually, you know,
gives you a little,

a little more stuff to,
to just be your age.

♪

For the next part.

♪

Midwives are braver
than bull fighters

and fighter pilots.

They face death bare handed.

Well, they wear gloves now,
but...

They take it on bare handed,
face to face,

their own good heart
and intelligence.

Doesn't bother me to say
that I'm her Sherpa.

The Sherpa gets to go
up the mountain with you.

-Will do.
-Will do.

♪

♪

♪

I brought my skates.

♪

I only have a few seconds
left, Ina May.

Tell us about the book,
your biggest pointer

or tell us
what it's about.

Okay.

We need to understand better
how women's bodies work.

I have something called
sphincter law in there

that I think will help
people understand--

Wait, wait.

Okay, now I think,
okay.

It's been said on television
before.

Okay, all right,
okay, good.

Sphincter law.

We'll be right back
on your evening news.

I didn't think
I'd be saying that today.

♪

We're grateful for
the revolution.

Things are heating up.

Thank you so much for
all you've done

for women and birthing.

You're welcome.

Hi, how are you doing?

I'm very good.

I'm sure you've probably heard
this a million times,

but you're the reason
that I became a doula.

Thank you, nice work.

Thank you.

When I found out that I
had to have forceps delivery

because what an American
obstetrician in 1920

called the prophylactic
forceps delivery

and he had been dead and
in his grave for a long time,

but he had way more power
than I did

because he wrote
the text books.

And he didn't really have
very good faith

that babies can
come out of women.

Except, he said savage women
can do it.

Savage women can do it

and they will assume
a squatting posture

as in the act of defecation.

Oh, how disgusting,
we can't allow that.

We can't let white women
look like

they're takin' a crap
when they're having,

when they're giving birth.

It upsets us so.

And here's another thing,

that men think only their stuff
can get way big

and then get small
and not be ruined.

[laughter and applause]

I just wanna say a word
to the men here.

We need you guys
to help us.

This cannot be done
by women alone

and we need to have more people
see real birth.

If they have to see it from
another kind of mammal,

so be it, but they need to know
that we women are just as good,

we're made just as well,

we are not a badly
made machine,

your body is not a lemon.

[applause]

[phone rings]

Hello?

It's time to come,
okay.

Okay, Stephen,

I'll be back
when I get back.

Where to?

♪

♪

Hi.

I haven't been here
in a long time.

I know, isn't it nice?

Yeah.

Yup.

And we'll just help as needed.

Right, yeah.

-That's great.
-Yup.

So everything we might
need immediately is here.

Is Mama havin' it?

♪

♪

Stephen's sister
was giving birth,

we had a guitarist.

Really good, you know?

Played for hours.

[moaning]

There you go,
the real push, yeah.

That's good.

That's good.

Oh, come out, baby.

Good.

Oh, come out, baby.

That's it, Christina.

Good, Christina.

Strong.

Is that the water bag?

Yeah.

You got it.

Come on,
you're so close.

Yes...

That's it,
you're really strong,

you're so strong, Christina.

Please come,
please come.

Take a deep breath
and relax for a second.

It's okay to go
very slowly with this,

it's easier.

As long as you just sort of
keep your mouth

good and wide open,
jaw down, that'll help you.

Come on baby.

We gotta go out,
we gotta go out,

we gotta go out,
we gotta go out.

Nice and wide.

Open big.

Yes, yes.

Look at Mommy.

Come on, baby.

-Come on, baby.
-Come on, baby.

Head's out.

Head's out, good,
head's out.

That's it.

Yeah.

Okay.

There's the water bag,
it's all right.

Hello, there.

Come on, baby.

Yeah.

Push it out.

Here it comes.

Oh, my God.

Good job, it's comin',
it's comin'.

Beautiful, beautiful,
keep goin'.

It's comin',
it's comin.

Fiona, your baby brother
or sister's coming' out

right now.

Come here baby,
I feel your arm,

come on, honey.

Good job.

There it is.

Oh, yeah, opening
its eyes.

Oh, look at you,
look at you.

Yeah.

Push him out.

Come on.

You got it, Christina.

Come on.

Come on, baby.

You got it baby,
you got it, you got it.

I'm fine, I'm fine,
I'm fine.

Is that the cord?

He's fine.

Yeah, he's good.

Just gotta help him out.

There you go, good job.

There's your baby,
good job!

There you go.

Hi, sweetie.

Okay.

Hi, sweetie, yeah.

What you need?

A blanket.

Say hi to your mommy.

Yeah.

Good pulse in the cord.

Great.

Oh, there you are.

You're so tired.

I'm the one that
did all the work.

Really good heartbeat.

Just kind of lift him up
on your shoulder a little bit.

There we go.

There you go, that's good,
good.

You're okay.

He's fine.

She?

Or, I don't know.

Baby brother!

We thought it sounded
like a boy's voice.

Shhh.

♪

♪