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 More Quotes by Ina May Gaskin More Quotes From Ina May Gaskin I think that women can be just completely surprised by the change in them from giving birth-you have something powerful in you-that fierce thing comes up-and I think babies need moms to have that fierceness-you feel like you can do anything and that’s the feeling we want moms to have. Ina May Gaskin powerful mom baby Ask the woman, she will tell you everything you need to know Ina May Gaskin intuition knows needs 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 males doctors together Squat 300 times a day, you’re going to give birth quickly. Ina May Gaskin squat birth giving 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 healthy doe water 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 scare nice easy Why do we, then, continue to treat women as if their emotions and comfort, and the postures they might want to assume while in labor, are against the rules? Ina May Gaskin comfort want might It will take your breastfed baby an average of five to six months to double her birth weight. Ina May Gaskin six-months average baby When you cast doubt on some bodily function- you don't know how sensitive the body is to that kind of idea. Ina May Gaskin body doubt ideas 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 cesarean mother europe 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 physicians doctors mistake Many of our problems in US maternity care stem from the fact that we leave no room for recognizing when nature is smarter than we are. Ina May Gaskin maternity care rooms 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 nutrition matter doe The suckling relationship is one of the sources of real sweetness that we have in human existence...The suckling baby can teach adults about the expression of sweet love and gratitude in a way no words can. Ina May Gaskin gratitude sweet baby 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 common-sense people thinking The best a health care system can do is to equip itself to meet the needs of each individual woman and birth. Those needs run the gamut from undisturbed home birth to planned cesarean section. Ina May Gaskin home running needs Nothing in medical literature today communicates the idea that women's bodies are well-designed for birth. Ignorance of the capacities of women's bodies can flourish and quickly spread into the popular culture when the medical profession is unable to distinguish between ancient wisdom and superstitious belief. Ina May Gaskin ignorance culture ideas Breast stimulation is especially effective in starting labor at term when it is combined with sexual intercourse. Unless your partner is an abysmally poor lover, this combination is by far the most enjoyable method of induction. Ina May Gaskin starting poor lovers The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Ina May Gaskin moose birth pregnancy If you can't be a hero, you can at least be funny while being a chicken. Ina May Gaskin chickens ifs hero