Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives

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Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives

2011

1h 33m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

88%

Tomatometer

8 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

100+ Ratings

Women on a 1970s hippie commune teach themselves midwifery. Their leader, Ina May Gaskin, becomes an author and staunch advocate for natural childbirth.

Hannah Forman

Bitch Media

01/14/2021

A Birth Story is far from universal... Despite this exclusion, A Birth Story provides an important overview of the forgotten advocacy work that helped preserve homebirth wisdom and practices in the United States.

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David Lewis

San Francisco Chronicle

03/07/2013

2/4

This film is so bereft of conflict and seems so intent on celebrating commune life and the sisterhood and the joys of midwifery that it glosses over important issues.

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

01/16/2013

B+

Highlights Gaskin's down-home gumption as an advocate for the glory of natural childbirth.

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Nathalie Atkinson

National Post

03/28/2013

It's interesting how in retrospect what [Gaskin] espouses, something so simple could be considered radical. Yet Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore's documentary Birth Story makes that very point.

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Nora Lee Mandel

Film-Forward.com

01/30/2013

6/10

Lengthy documentation of births. . .are fascinating to watch. . .but ends up reinforcing every stereotype. . . of midwifery as more appropriate to hippie lifestyle or Amish.

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Marsha McCreadie

Film Journal International

01/18/2013

The old ways are the still best, asserts this documentary, especially if it's a DIY birth with a midwife on hand to help.

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01/24/2016

Really inspiring movie! It demonstrates that natural birth and midwives have a long existing knowledge of women. It also really demonstrates that the exising precursion of medical doctors to use C-sections is not necessary

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03/27/2013

This is an important film for all women to see, if only to let them in on the secret that there are alternative ways to give birth. Lots of great archival footage and some insightful theories on spirituality and childbirth made this a total joy of a watch for me.

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01/19/2013

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives. As an (Oregon) apprentice midwife myself, this is a treasured part of our history. I was glad to see the number of births in the film, both the straightforward baby-head-down ones and the one where a breech baby managed to successfully come out of a woman's vagina (something modern OBs aren't apt to do). This film does an excellent job of inviting the viewer onto the Farm and reassuring us that we can birth our babies.

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01/17/2013

Excellent doc on Ina May and the Farm!! Highly recommend!!

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Sara Lamm

Director

Mary Wigmore

Director

Sara Lamm

Producer

Mary Wigmore

Producer

Kate Roughan

Producer

Zachary Mortensen

Producer

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Synopsis

Women on a 1970s hippie commune teach themselves midwifery. Their leader, Ina May Gaskin, becomes an author and staunch advocate for natural childbirth.

Director: Sara Lamm, Mary Wigmore
Producer: Sara Lamm, Mary Wigmore, Kate Roughan, Zachary Mortensen
Production Co: Ghost Robot
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 11, 2017
Runtime: 1h 33m