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We are the only species of mammal that doubts our ability to give birth. It's profitable to scare women about birth. But let's stop it. I tell women: Your body is not a lemon.

Ina May Gaskin

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Ina May Gaskin
Age: 84
Born: 1940
Born: March 8
Midwife
Obstetrician
Giving
Stop
Mammals
Ability
Lemons
Inspirational
Doubts
Tell
Profitable
Give
Scare
Midwifery
Women
Species
Mammal
Body
Birth
Midwife
Humans
Doubt
Lemon

More quotes by Ina May Gaskin

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If birth matters, midwives matter. In Europe, there are hospitals where the cesarean rate is less than 10%, and you'll find midwives in these hospitals, you'll see a lot less re-admissions with infections and complications, and you'll see a lot less injury to mothers.
Ina May Gaskin
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I dreaded having a boring life when I grew up. And I certainly can't complain about being bored.
Ina May Gaskin
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I have never observed even the slightest laceration in a woman who used clitoral stimulation as a relaxation method during birth. Clitoral stimulation seems to increase vaginal engorgement as the baby emerges.
Ina May Gaskin
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When we as a society begin to value mothers as the givers and supporters of life, then we will see social change in ways that matter.
Ina May Gaskin
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When you destroy midwives, you also destroy a body of knowledge that is shared by women, that can’t be put together by a bunch of surgeons or a bunch of male obstetricians, because physiologically, birth doesn’t happen the same way around surgeons, medically trained doctors, as it does around sympathetic women.
Ina May Gaskin
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I had to learn not to let anyone push me around, to be brave and to say things I knew might make people mad.
Ina May Gaskin
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I think midwifery was developed by people with common sense, people who were close to nature, and people who observed other species of mammals and saw that there were lessons there to be learned.
Ina May Gaskin
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Whenever and however you give birth, your experience will impact your emotions, your mind, your body, and your spirit for the rest of your life.
Ina May Gaskin
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Don't forget to bring your sense of humor to your labor.
Ina May Gaskin
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The way a culture treats women in birth is a good indicator of how well women and their contributions to society are valued and honored.
Ina May Gaskin
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Gardeners know that you must nourish the soil if you want healthy plants. You must water the plants adequately, especially when seeds are germinating and sprouting, and they should be planted in a nutrient-rich soil. Why should nutrition matter less in the creation of young humans than it does in young plants? I'm sure that it doesn't.
Ina May Gaskin
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It would be a mistake, though, to consider care by family doctors or midwives inferior to that offered by obstetricians simply on the grounds that obstetricians need not refer care to a family physician or midwife if no complications develop during a course of labor.
Ina May Gaskin
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It is important to keep in mind that our bodies must work pretty well, or their wouldn't be so many humans on the planet.
Ina May Gaskin
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The energy that gets the baby in is the energy that gets the baby out.
Ina May Gaskin
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Pregnant and birthing mothers are elemental forces, in the same sense that gravity, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and hurricanes are elemental forces. In order to understand the laws of their energy flow, you have to love and respect them for their magnificence at the same time that you study them with the accuracy of a true scientist.
Ina May Gaskin
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Squat 300 times a day, you’re going to give birth quickly.
Ina May Gaskin
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If a woman doesn't look like a Goddess during labor, then someone isn't treating her right.
Ina May Gaskin
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Why should nutrition matter less in the creation of young humans than it does in young plants? I'm sure that it doesn't.
Ina May Gaskin
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It's good to laugh at times that feel inappropriate.
Ina May Gaskin
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It's easy to scare women. It's even profitable to scare women... But it's not nice, so let's stop it.
Ina May Gaskin