02235cam a2200325 i 4500 296037044 TxAuBib 20121119120000.0 110113s2011||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2011001677 9781583229279 pbk. 16.95 1583229272 pbk. 16.95 TxAuBib rda Gaskin, Ina May. Birth matters [BOOK] : a midwife's manifesta / Ina May Gaskin; foreword by Ani DiFranco. New York : Seven Stories Press, 2011. xii, 250 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. The importance of birth and birth stories -- Second-wave feminism, birth, and motherhood -- Sexuality and birth -- A brief look at the history of midwives and medical men -- Technology and empowerment -- Gathering the power of sisterhood -- What's a father-to-be to do? -- My vision for the future -- The kind of obstetrics I miss, and its great defenders. Renowned for her practice's exemplary results and low intervention rates, Ina May Gaskin has gained international notoriety for promoting natural birth. She is a much-beloved leader of a movement that seeks to stop the hyper-medicalization of birth-which has lead to nearly a third of hospital births in America to be cesarean sections-and renew confidence in a woman's natural ability to birth. Upbeat and informative, Gaskin asserts that the way in which women become mothers is a women's rights issue, and it is perhaps the act that most powerfully exhibits what it is to be instinctually human. Birth Matters is a spirited manifesta showing us how to trust women, value birth, and reconcile modern life with a process as old as our species. Provided by publisher. 20121119. Midwifery. Natural childbirth. Labor (Obstetrics.) DiFranco, Ani.