If women lose the right to say where and how they birth their children, then they will have lost something that’s as dear to life as breathing.

Remember this, for it is as true and true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential...

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.

Ina May Gaskin is the most important person in maternity care in North America, bar none.

The midwife considers the miracle of childbirth as normal, and leaves it alone unless there’s trouble. The obstetrician normally sees childbirth as trouble; if he leaves it alone, it’s a miracle.