Ina May made me terrified of mainstream medicine's approach to birth, and the book got hard to read at a certain point because I was like, "Yeah, sure, this birth would be wonderful if I were doing it on Ina May's hippie commune, but since I'm doing it in a shitty Miami hospital those doctors are going to cut me up into pieces and mess up my baby with all kinds of unnecessary and frightening interventions. If you really, really, really want a natural childbirth in a birthing center or at home this is a good book for you. In fact this book contributed greatly to my own embarking on pregnancy with such confidence in my body and mind. While she does in many places provide good information, do not be fooled into thinking she is at all, in any way an objective or unbiased resource!

I thought a lot of them were just common sense, but obviously this is not the case as many of the things she suggests are actually not possible, not allowed, or otherwise discouraged in many hospitals. I found this book to be very insightful about something that is rarely talked about (I now 'collect' birth stories from women I know- I find them fascinating!But here's the thing -- I wonder sometime how often our deference for what we're told is good for us gets in the way of what really makes us comfortable. The benefits of medical tests were skimmed over while the possible harm of these tests was thoroughly covered. The international bestseller that has helped millions of women trust in their body – and their baby – and give birth without fearDrawing on over 40 years’ experience, internationally acclaimed midwife Ina May Gaskin shows you how to use the mind-body connection to help labour progress calmly and safely.

The second half of the book was really helpful with information on what to expect during childbirth, what your options are, and techniques to help you during childbirth. Ina May Gaskin is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee.These stories are all from the 1970s so I felt like I was reading a history book since I am so far removed from that age group. I find it refreshing to read something so real that attempts to turn our stereotypical hospital birth routine upside-down. I wound up spending a lot of my pregnancy terrified of what would happen to me at the hospital, and convinced that medical professionals would make traumatic what would otherwise be an awesome and beautiful experience. Instead, it is a series of birth stories written by different women telling their own birth stories.

If you're skeptical that you're going to be able to move a small person from one of your internal organs to the world via your vaginal opening, Ina May will clear all that up for you.With Gaskin's timeless wisdom, you can approach birth with confidence and excitement, wherever and however it happens. I do definitely recommend this one, but I also recommend reading other books to fill out a more balanced view, unless you are definitely giving birth under the stars on a hippie commune and your chances of winding up in a hospital are extremely low. The first part consists of a collection of birth stories from women on The Farm and women who interacted with midwives from The Farm. The days and weeks following my son's birth should have been the happiest of my life (well, barring the hormones rocking my boat, of course), but instead I had to spend the first year of my baby's life wrestling with guilt and shame and a sense of inadequacy, and that's just stupid. If the natural childbirth books hadn't made me so insanely fearful of what labor in the hospital would be like, I would've gone in earlier and probably wound up taking drugs, which I really didn't want to do.