--- title: "Taking Back Birth: Ina May Gaskin" date: 2009-04-28T21:28:45-04:00 author: OBOS Admin canonical_url: "https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/taking-back-birth-ina-may-gaskin" section: Blog (Archive) --- [Donate](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/donate) [From the Archives of Our Bodies, Our Blog](/blog)# Taking Back Birth: Ina May Gaskin By Our Bodies Ourselves • April 28, 2009 Please note: This entry -- originally posted at [Our Bodies, Our Blog](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog) -- has not been updated since the publication date listed above. *From 2009 - 2011, Our Bodies Ourselves honored the work of women's health advocates worldwide by asking readers to nominate their favorite women's health hero. View all nominees by year: [2009](/category/our-bodies-ourselves/womens-health-heroes-2009/), [2010](/category/our-bodies-ourselves/womens-health-heroes-2010/), [2011](/category/our-bodies-ourselves/womens-health-heroes-2011/)* **Entrant:** Venessa Tarbell **Nominee:** Ina May Gaskin, Midwife, Director of the [Farm Midwifery Center](http://www.thefarmmidwives.org/) Ina May Gaskin has been a tireless advocate for midwifery and the health of women for nearly forty years. Her unyielding faith in the ability of a woman's body to birth a child, her trust in the process of birth, and her courageous criticism of unnecessary interventions in a woman's pregnancy and labor have inspired countless mothers to take back their births. Her books are an inspiration to all who remain fascinated by the mother-fetus relationship and the process of childbirth. When I was pregnant, I began questioning procedures that have become routine and the commonly accepted myth that childbirth is unavoidably terrifying. Ina May's words reassured me that birth can and should be empowering and beautiful. I know that I am only one of many, many women who found comfort and inspiration in her writing and activism. Thank you, Ina May! --- #### 4 Responses Our Bodies Ourselves is no longer able to accept comments. **Judith Lienhard** on Apr 29, 2009 Ina May is my all time hero! I received her book in 1975 I believe and was captured. Today I work as a maternity nurse, using as much of her philosophy as is possible in a hospital setting. **Jane Randall** on May 01, 2009 Ina May Gaskin has been my hero throughout my long career in women's health. She is the reason for the beautiful births I had myself, plus such a perfect role model for me in providing care to women and their partners in their birthing, breastfeeding, parenting, etc. She was our idol during all the years that I worked as a nurse practitioner with the midwives at Carolina Birth Center in NC. Please note that I tried to vote, but was unable to do so. Please count my vote for Ina May! **Ronnie** on May 08, 2009 Ina May changed childbearing for those of us who are now grandmothers and all the women who have given birth since. She made birth a natural, normal event, not a medical situation. Please enter my vote for Ina May - 5 stars - the counter did not work. Thank you. **Karla** on May 28, 2009 I "discovered" Ina May just after I had given birth to my first child in a hospital with a doctor that was angry because I was making him late for a family dinner. My next two births were home births using lay midwives because of what I read in her book "Spiritual Midwifery". I wore that book out!! Thank you Ina May for helping take birth back where it belongs, at HOME! ![](/assets/img/monogram.webp)Topics - [Our Bodies Ourselves - Women's Health Heroes 2009](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/blog/topic/our-bodies-ourselves-womens-health-heroes-2009) ![](/assets/img/monogram.webp)### *Why You Can* **Trust Us** - We rigorously evaluate all content - We embrace a reproductive justice framework - We don’t accept ads or sell products - We reject funding from the pharmaceutical industry - We counter misinformation and disinformation - We address the social, political, and economic factors that affect health and sexuality [read more](https://ourbodiesourselves.org/why-you-can-trust-us) Share [](javascript:void();)[](javascript:void();)[](javascript:void();)[](javascript:void();)