Open iTunes to preview, buy, and download this movie.
Plot Summary
Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and the Farm Midwives tells the story of counterculture heroine Ina May Gaskin and her spirited friends, who began delivering each other's babies in 1970, on a caravan of hippie school buses, headed to a patch of rural Tennessee land. With Ina May as their leader, the women taught themselves midwifery from the ground up, and became an integral part of a new, entirely communal, agricultural society called The Farm. The people of The Farm grew their own food, built their own houses, published their own books, and, as word of their social experiment spread, created a model of care for women and babies that changed a generation's approach to childbirth. Forty years ago, Ina May led the charge away from isolated hospital birthing rooms, where husbands were not allowed and mandatory forceps deliveries were the norm. Today, as nearly one third of all US babies are born via C-section, she fights to preserve her community's hard-won knowledge. With incredible access to the midwives' archival video collection, the film not only captures the unique sisterhood at The Farm Clinic--from its heyday into the present--but shows childbirth the way most people have never seen it--unadorned, unabashed, and awe-inspiring.
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
86%- Reviews Counted: 7
- Fresh: 6
- Rotten: 1
- Average Rating: 6.2/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: A granola ode to natural childbirth that makes you want to hop into a tub of warm water and start pushing.
Fresh: Highlights Gaskin's down-home gumption as an advocate for the glory of natural childbirth.
Fresh: Challengingly graphic but good-natured doc is an eye-opener on midwivery.
Customer Reviews
Superb!!
Loved this documentary! Well worth everyone's time, having a baby or not. We need to get back to trusting ourselves and what we're all capable of!!