Ina May Gaskin

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Biographical Information

Ina May Gaskin "was born on 8 March, 1940. She is the wife of the first Right Livelihood Award Laureate Stephen Gaskin, who received the Prize with his organisation PLENTY International in 1980.

"Ina May Gaskin’s first midwifery experience was in 1970, when she assisted at a birth in a schoolbus on Stephen's speaking tour of universities and churches prior to the establishment of The Farm, an intentional community in Tennessee, and the subsequent development of Plenty International. This experience inspired her to study midwifery as a way of providing birth choices for women in her country, where the profession of midwifery had been eliminated early in the 20th century, because obstetrical leaders at the time saw no reason for its continued existence, and because of the benefits medicated birth and caesarean sections provide to for-profit hospitals, insurance companies and the drug industry, though often not to the women.

"With a strong motivation to become a midwife in a country that lacked opportunities for such an educational path, Gaskin founded The Farm Midwifery Center in 1971. The Center became well known during the 1970s as a place where authentic midwifery was practiced and taught..."

Affiliations

• Winner of the 2011 Right Livelihood Award