Award-winning documentary BIRTH STORY: INA MAY GASKIN & THE FARM MIDWIVES is now available for use by educators, libraries, training and birth education programs.

The Birth Story educational license comes with unlimited rights to use the film in a classroom, library, or training program, and exclusive discussion materials. The full film is 93 minutes.

Birth Story shares world-renowned midwife Ina May Gaskin’s valuable insights from decades of delivering babies, tells an important story of women’s leadership, and captures an inspiring period in the women’s health care movement.

Click HERE for details on how to license the film for educational purposes.

The documentary film Birth Story is in the Schlesinger Library’s collection because it not only captures an important historical moment in the women’s health movement, but is also a document of the discourse around childbirth continuing today. The film, rich with archival footage of natural childbirth, points students and faculty toward an understanding of birth as a natural physiological process. Ina May Gaskin continues to be a pioneer and activist for women’s health.
Jennifer Gotwals, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University

The film is already being used in classrooms, libraries, and screenings at:

  • Yale University: Anthropology Department
  • Brown University: Women’s Center and Public Health
  • Harvard University: Schlesinger Library
  • University of Pennsylvania: Medical Library
  • University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
  • UCLA
  • Tulane University: Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
  • Davidson College
  • Wellesley College
  • University of San Diego
  • Temple University
  • University of Connecticut
  • Simkin Center at Bastyr University
  • University of the West of England
  • Trinity College
  • Middlesex University Library
  • James Madison University
  • University of New Hampshire
  • University of Puerto Rico: Nurse Midwifery Program

The film is applicable to the following areas of studies:

  • Public Health, Public Policy
  • Women and Gender Studies
  • Women’s History
  • Anthropology
  • Sociology
  • Obstetric, Neonatology, Perinatology Medicine
  • Women’s Heath, Neonatal and Obstetrics Nursing
  • Midwifery, Doula and Childbirth Education Training
  • Library Resource Materials