Spiritual Midwifery

The classic, and essential, book on home birth. First section details the stories of parents and midwives during the home birth experience. Second seciton is a technical manual for midwives, nurses, and doctors. Includes information on prenatal care and nutrition, labor, delivery-techniques, care of the new baby, and breast-feeding.

Ina May Gaskin is one of the Founders and the current president of the Midwives’ Alliance of North America. She is a powerful advocate for a woman’s right to give birth without excessive and unnecessary medical intervention.

Her clinical midwifery skills have been developed entirely through independent study and apprenticeship with other midwives around the world. Ina May and fellow Farm midwives were instrumental in the development of the rigorous Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) certification process.

The Farm is an intentional community in Lewis County, Tennessee, near the town of Summertown, Tennessee, based on principles of nonviolence and respect for the Earth. It was founded in 1971 by Stephen Gaskin and 320 San Francisco hippies; The Farm is well known amongst hippies and other members of similar subcultures as well as by many vegetarians. The Farm now has approximately 175 residents.

In the original manifestation of The Farm, all members were believers in God and smoking marijuana was a sacrament, though Farm members did not accept alcohol or other drugs. Also there was no private property, no leather products, no harming of animals and no consumption of meat.

The Farm was established after Gaskin and friends led a caravan of 60 buses, vans, and trucks on a speaking tour across the US. Along the way, they checked out various places that might be suitable for settlement before deciding on Tennessee. After buying 1,064 acres (4.1 km2), the Farm began building its community in the woods alongside the network of crude logging roads that followed its ridgelines. Another adjoining 750 acres (3.0 km2) were purchased shortly thereafter.

From its founding through the 1970s, Farm members took vows of poverty and owned no personal possessions, though this restriction loosened as time passed. During that time, Farm members did not use artificial birth control, alcohol, tobacco, man-made psychotropics, or animal products.