Ina May Gaskin, MA, CPM
Founder and director, the Farm Midwifery Center
Summertown, Tennessee
www.thefarmmidwives.org
www.inamay.com

More about Ina May Gaskin

 

What can a woman do to feel safe and private while giving birth?

The best place to enjoy real privacy is at home. If a home birth isn’t possible, the next best choice is a birth center.

A woman who chooses to have a hospital birth might consider hiring a doula. This labor partner can attend the early stages of labor at home and know when it’s time to leave for the hospital. Many women go to the hospital before labor is well established and end up being given drugs because they can’t keep up with the pace that is expected of them there by hospital staff.

Tips for obtaining privacy in a hospital:

• Retreat to the bathroom as often as possible and stay there as long as you can.
• Take a screen to set in front of the door. (Ask first if the hospital has one.) The screen will slow people down as they are about to enter the room.

Why does birth happen differently around women than around male surgeons?

Doctors have been writing for a century that women must lay aside their “false modesty” for their own safety and the baby’s. Almost all doctors during the 19th century were men, who felt they had to present a good argument about why women shouldn’t feel shy about being examined intimately by them.

What they weren’t thinking about is how much the cervix behaves like other sphincter muscles. Consider the anal and bladder sphincters and imagine how easy it might be to pee or poop while a doctor of the opposite sex was looking at you critically and maybe shouting at you to push harder or threatening you with a cesarean if your baby didn’t pop out within 10 minutes. These may be exaggerations, but you get the idea.

You may be surprised to learn that surgeons and other physicians usually don’t get a chance to witness a normal birth during their training. They see many horrible sights during their training, however, which may frighten them about birth. The lucky ones grew up on farms or had some other way to witness animals giving birth.

Why did you start the Safe Motherhood Quilt Project?

In 1998, I read an article from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, stating that they were unable to collect accurate information about the deaths of women during childbirth in the United States. In fact, the CDC estimates that they are not notified in up to two-thirds of such cases. I find that shocking. There is no way that we can reduce the maternal death rate if we don’t count the deaths completely, analyze mistakes that have been made, and stop making them.

To learn more:
www.rememberthemothers.net