When you hear “pain free childbirth” you probably scoff. Well, you won’t after you watch BIRTH STORY, the most engaging documentary about birth you will ever see.
The feature-length documentary BIRTH STORY: INA MAY GASKIN & THE FARM MIDWIVES tells the story of counterculture heroine Ina May Gaskin and her spirited friends, who began delivering each otherโs babies in 1970, on a caravan of hippie school buses, headed to a patch of rural Tennessee land. With Ina May as their leader, the women taught themselves midwifery from the ground up, and, with their families, founded an entirely communal, agricultural society called The Farm. They grew their own food, built their own houses, published their own books, and, as word of their social experiment spread, created a model of care for women and babies that changed a generationโs approach to childbirth.
I’ve always been extremely interested in natural birth, since I was 5 years old even, though I did not live in an area full of hippie midwives or anything of the sort. As a child playing with my baby dolls, I was more interested in replicating my idea of a midwife attended natural birth than I was simply changing their clothes or feeding them. It was a deep seeded interest that even my mother didn’t quite understand and none of us knew where it came from. Somehow I just “knew” that birth was a special and amazing process that could be beautiful.
When I first learned about Ina May Gaskin back when I became pregnant with my first child, I felt like I had finally found my birth idol! I was immediately entranced by her warm love towards the laboring woman, her care and concern for the mother’s emotional well being (as well as physical) and her attitude about the spiritual aspect of birth. I found it refreshing because the spiritual aspect of childbirth is something that is completely overlooked in today’s over-medicalized birth settings.
Once you watch this movie, you will feel empowered, inspired and amazed at how beautiful the birthing process can really be. Birth has been so corrupted in the United States and most women believe that birth is painful, horrible and a medical event that requires a full staff of doctors on-hand “just in case”. The medical profession meddling with the natural process of birth has actually created the epidemic of c-sections in this country and no one realizes it.
Nearly 1/3 of all babies in the US are born via c-section! What people don’t know is that this is the direct result of doctors intervening when everyone, including the laboring mother, should sit back and trust the human female body to do it’s job. We are powerful and our bodies know exactly what to do because we are designed to birth children. Our bodies are not broken. Our bodies do not need a doctor’s help to know what to do. As Ina May Gaskin always says, “Your body is not a lemon!”
There are graphic birth scenes within the movie for sure, including a breech birth that is just amazing. Most of us have heard that a c-section is absolutely necessary for a breech baby, so you will be in awe as you watch this woman push her foot-first baby into the world with ease.
Something I noted throughout the movie, was how amazingly calm and peaceful all the midwives were in every birth scene. Nothing at ALL like you see on stupid programs like TLC’s “A Baby Story” (which I highly caution you against watching if you are pregnant!).
But don’t be insulted or feel judged… If you already have children of your own, you come out of it with your OWN “birth story” which can be good or bad. Some of you may feel cheated and wish things had gone different, while some of you might be totally content with the way things went whether it was natural and drug-free birth or a planned c-section. Still, I think all of us know deep down inside that there is something missing from today’s traditional birth scene. That missing competent is self confidence.
The biggest thing you should take away from this movie is the fact that your body is not a badly made machine! If you overcome any and all fears of childbirth, you will absolutely improve your your entire pregnancy, labor and delivery. Just having a positive attitude, remaining calm and dismissing all your fears will empower you to have the childbirth experience that you dream of. It’s not a “roll of the dice” whether or not you have a good experience. I believe that your confidence in yourself and in your body directly correlates to your outcome.
5 REASONS YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS MOVIE:
- To learn more about the amazing history if midwifery in the US.
- To understand more about childbirth and how it can actually be an amazing experience!
- To empower you and educate you for your own future experiences (and so you can pass along the knowledge to others)
- To learn more about the most iconic midwife in history!
- To have a greater understanding of natural childbirth.
Watch the official trailer for the movie…
you will immediately get baby fever after watching this movie!
PURCHASE: Click here to buy the DVD for $19.95 or click here to buy the digital download for $12.99.
All opinions are my own and I did not receive compensation for writing this post.
