Elizabeth's review of Spiritual Midwifery
Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin
Elizabeth's review
rating:
bookshelves:
herbal-natural,
non-fiction
recommended for:
hippies
status:
Read in November, 2007 — I have a copy to sell/swap
Laura found this first edition (1975) at the flea market next door. How could we turn this down? It's the first hand account - told by the mothers and fathers and midwives - of about 200 of the 372 births (thus far) on a giant culty hippie baby making farm in Tennessee. Followed by instructions for prenatal and neonatal care for parents and midwives. The hippie slang is unreal. A good example:
"'We could use some of your energy in here, Clifford.' I sat up and helped get it covered. It was right up in my thing, because I always tended to be a little lazy about spending my energy. But this was my kid being born, too, and my lady in labor and my Universe, so I had to cop to the responsibility of keeping it stoned."
Basically a few hundred pages of rushes being groove and getting heavy while they were real telepathic with each other and getting stoneder on that. This book was definitely stoned ("charged with spiritual energy"). I started reading it ...more
"'We could use some of your energy in here, Clifford.' I sat up and helped get it covered. It was right up in my thing, because I always tended to be a little lazy about spending my energy. But this was my kid being born, too, and my lady in labor and my Universe, so I had to cop to the responsibility of keeping it stoned."
Basically a few hundred pages of rushes being groove and getting heavy while they were real telepathic with each other and getting stoneder on that. This book was definitely stoned ("charged with spiritual energy"). I started reading it ...more
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I just read up on it, and they're still very much out there. Ina May is still publishing and touring the world speaking on her Gaskin maneuver, the first obstetrical procedure to be named after a miwife. This is her site: inamay.comAnd this is on The Farm: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Farm_%28Tennessee%29
I'll have to mention this to a friend of mine who is HEAVY into "the cause" of midwifery. She is lobbying for it to be legal in Missouri ( which, if I understand it correctly, it currently is not) and who birthed all three of her children at home with her husband delivering. Side note: It's interesting to me what has been so natural since the dawn of time is not illegal in our state. Hmmmm...
