«Midwives Day»

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

Who is a professional? A professional is someone who has a combination of competence, confidence and belief. A water diviner is a professional. A traditional midwife is a professional. A traditional bone setter is a professional. These are professionals all over the world. You find them in any inaccessible village around the world.

Bunker Roy

When a woman births, not only is a baby being born but so is a mother.

How we treat her will affect how she feels about herself as a mother and as a parent.

Be gentle. Be kind. Listen.

(The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour)

Ruth Ehrhardt

Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of our greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don’t only give your care, but give your heart as well.

Mother Teresa

Good beginnings make a positive difference in the world, so it is worth our while to provide the best possible care for mothers and babies throughout this extraordinarily influential part of life.

Ina May Gaskin

If a woman doesn’t look like a goddess during labor, then someone isn’t treating her right.

Ina May Gaskin

I wanted to deliver babies and become a midwife. I think childbirth is one of the most amazing things you could ever experience, and I loved working with people and seeing the joys in family when they welcome a new member to it. It really brought me joy to be around that.

Natalie Martinez

One way to measure a particular doctor’s openness and attitude toward women in general is simply to ask about the doctor’s opinion of midwifery.

(Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First.)

Marsden Wagner

When we as a society begin to value mothers as the givers and supporters of life, then we will see social change in ways that matter.

Ina May Gaskin

You are a midwife, assisting at someone else’s birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening. If you must take the lead, lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the baby is born, the mother will rightly say: “We did it ourselves!”

From The Tao Te Ching

We should work to guarantee that there is a midwife or health worker by every woman’s side during childbirth.

Liya Kebede

What’s done to children, they will do to society.

Karl Menninger

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.

Eleanor Roosevelt