I recommend reading this book to all parents interested in having a natural birth.

Ina May and her husband Stephen began `The Farm' in the early 1970's. The birth stories in Spiritual Midwifery come from women's experiences on The Farm. The Farm statistics include (as of the year 2000) 2028 births of those births 95.1% of all babies were born in the home, 4.9% were transported to the hospital and only 1.3% were emergency transports. This book is based on the over 2000 births that have taken place on `The Farm'.

In the USA over 30% of all women give birth through surgical procedure called a Cesarean Section. Ina May's book gives support to the fact that birth is not a medical procedure. Spiritual Midwifery speaks to the normalcy of birth and explains why no more than 5-10% of women need a Cesarean Section to deliver babies. Ina touches on topics such as tests given during pregnancy, natural birth, complications that may arise and how to manage them in and out of hospital setting and most importantly the book provides factual and time-proven information.

Spiritual Midwifery is on the bookshelf of most Midwives and homebirth Midwives. If you are looking to have your questions and concerns addressed and answered this is the book to read. If you wish to buy just one book, this is the one.

This book was a gateway for me into homebirth. I knew nothing of it until I ran across this book. I admit this book is not for the mainstream. You can't be narrow minded and accept this book. This book is an amazing collection of stories written for decades chronicalling the births of their community. A community of people who ARE extremely well educated. This book gives tons of information needed for homebirth besides the birth stories. The language is a little far out but come on, it was written in the late 70's by hippies. What do you expect? They also happen to be very comfortable and familiar with their body parts and bodily functions those parts have. We are all grown ups, right?
PS I just gave birth there and it is just like they say in the book! Maybe even better...

I admit I thought it would be Christian in nature, and realized it was spirituality in general. However, it did provide some much sought-after information in the second half of the book on midwifery. I learned quite a bit of what I know about birth from this book. I must say it took strength getting past the less-than-medical terminology, but what I learned was invaluable. I think the birth story about the woman who got stuck at 8cm and the midwife discovered she was emotionally stuck due to the fact that her husband had never articulated that he loved her out loud, well that was so touching to read. She went on to deliver after midwives left the room and he, for the first time, said "I love you." What wisdom, and it changed my outlook on delivery completely from a medical event, to an emotional, and yes, spiritual event. Since that time, I have grown in my own faith, yet am indebted to this book! A worthwhile read for aspiring childbirth professionals as well as pregnant mommas!

Kelly Townsend
Author
Christ Centered Childbirth

I'll admit it took me a while to get over the way that Ina May and others in this book speak. At first I found it distracting, but once I got into the mentality of The Farm, I found this book very inspiring. It contains a lot of very detailed information on anatomy and the practice of midwifery, but the best part is the stories. This book is packed full of real-life accounts of natural births- some good, some bad, but all amazing. When I finished, I felt empowered to give birth naturally and able to take control of my own pregnancy and labor. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering natural childbirth.