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Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & the Farm Midwives. 2012. Ghost Robot Productions, produced and directed by Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore, 25 Howard Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10013. http://watch.birthstorymovie .com
It has been 40 years since Ina May Gaskin's popular book Spiritual Midwifery first hit the market in 1975 and radically changed the way many prospective parents thought about childbirth. A guide to birthing for consumers and birth practitioners, Spiritual Midwifery has sold over half a million copies, has been translated into six languages, and is still in print. In 2006, filmmaker Sara Lamm, pregnant with her first child, was given a copy of the book by a friend. That gift marked the beginning of a journey that culminated in the 2012 documentary, Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & the Farm Midwives, produced by Lamm and her colleague Mary Wigmore. Inspired by Gaskin's model of out-of-hospital midwifery care, they set out to capture the history of the book and the many people who helped to create it.
The resulting documentary is a fascinating compilation of interviews, archival footage, photographs, and scenes shot by the filmmakers in or near Summertown, Tennessee, where the former commune still exists. The film traces the origins of the commune all the way to the present. In 1970, while preaching at the nondenominational Glide Church,...