Gaskin, Ina May (1940–)

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Gaskin, Ina May (1940–)

American midwife. Born Ina May, Mar 8, 1940, in Marshalltown, Iowa; graduated from University of Iowa with bachelors, 1962; Northern Illinois University, MA, 1966; m. Steven Gaskin (spiritual leader).

Self-educated midwife considered the "mother of authentic midwifery," began career while traveling throughout US with husband, a spiritual leader (1970); established and worked at the Farm Midwifery Center in an alternative community, the Farm, created by spiritual leader Steven Gaskin's caravan in Summertown (TN); taught English in Kuala Trengganu, Malaysia (1963–65), as a US Peace Corps member; taught English as second language for the Office of Economic Opportunity in San Francisco; learned emergency childbirth and sterile techniques from Dr. Louis La Pere; selected to care for Amish childbirths in TN (1980s) by Dr. John O. William Jr.; established the Farm Midwifery Center's "woman-centered philosophy of childbirth as the norm for national obstetrical care"; served as an editor of The Birth Gazette; wrote Spiritual Midwifery; her holistic approach to midwifery is supported in The American Journal of Public Health.