Back to basics

Search the Internet for "midwife" and one will find hundreds of links revealing the rich heritage of natural childbirth that is virtually forgotten.

Licensed midwife Faith Gibson, 61, compiled a massive amount of documents dating to 1880, culled primarily from Stanford's Lane Medical Library, which shows a concerted effort by doctors to wrestle baby delivery away from midwives.

"Somewhere along the line, the public was convinced that childbirth was far too painful for a woman to endure and that midwives weren't competent," Gibson said.

Today, women can practically schedule when they want to have a baby, by inducement or C-section, and do it pain-free under the influence of heavy narcotics. If a woman chooses to have an epidural anesthetic just before delivery she will be completely numb from the waist down.

Recently, Gibson asked a room full of women how they ideally wanted childbirth to be and they all answered, she said, "quick and painless."

Natural childbirth is a tough sell for midwives because most women opt to hand the procedure over to a doctor. Increasingly the trend in childbirth is to deliver by C-section.

For Gibson, it is simple; the push to turn a natural act into a surgical procedure isn't so much about health as it is about money.

"If they can bill you for it they will," she said.

While working as a nurse in a segregated hospital in Orlando, Fla. in the early 1960s, Gibson saw first-hand how white women and black women were treated differently when it came to childbirth.

"White women were brought in to the maternity ward, given narcotics, put in a gurney and strapped to an IV. Black women were left to themselves, no drugs, no IV, until it was time to deliver," Gibson said. "It just seemed so much more natural and satisfying for the black women that when I became pregnant I requested my doctor to let me have my baby like the black women did."

Gibson remembers her doctor saying, "Hospitals are for drugs and surgery. If you want a delivery like they have, you better come to the hospital late."

So she did. It was so late she gave birth to her baby in the back seat of the car. It was 1964 and she was 20 years old.

"Of course it was painful. But I felt in control. Like I truly accomplished something," she said.

Gibson became disenchanted as a labor and delivery room nurse.

"Basically you are like a hostess on an airplane. Your job is scripted. You are hired to perform a function and take orders from an obstetrician who is not physically there," she said.

She went to the Seattle Midwifery School, got her license in 1980 and moved to the Peninsula. In her 20-plus years as a midwife she attended to 1,200 deliveries and signed the birth certificates of 300 babies.

In October, Gibson helped bring baby boy Liam Lin-Sperry into the world. He was born at his parents' home in Mountain View. His mother Eleanor Lin also delivered her first child, Ember Lin-Sperry, at home in May 2000 with Gibson's assistance.

Lin's father is a doctor and urged her to go the hospital route. However, she researched midwifery as an option after being exposed to women who went the natural route.

Lin, 28, interviewed other midwives before picking Gibson to assist her in delivery.

"I knew I would be more comfortable at home, less inhibited. I knew that if I went to a hospital I was more likely to be subjected to some unnecessary intervention," Lin said.

Lin delivered her babies in a deep water tub. The tub acts as a natural anesthetic and the birth of Ember went so smoothly she decided it was only natural to deliver her second baby in the same comfort of her own home.

"It was hard work and painful, but not stressful. There were no unnecessary medications or procedures," Lin said, who also credits her husband with offering a lot of support.

"It really did something to my mothering self-esteem," she said.

In her research, Lin discovered there can be disappointment in home birth as well because midwives can't handle every birth.

"Midwives will transfer you out because of too many problems," Lin said.

Lin's father, though, is still not convinced her daughter went the smart route.

"He says I was lucky," Lin said.

For Gibson, modern childbirth with drugs and surgery takes a level of responsibility away from the mother and puts it in the hands of a stranger. When a woman enters the hospital she essentially gives up control over her own body.

"Women need to know what there options are," Gibson said. "They need to know drugs and surgery are not the only ways to have a baby."

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For more information on Faith Gibson and midwifery check out www.collegeofmidwives.org.