Marsden Wagner Quotes

#1. If you really want a humanized birth, the best thing you can do is stay the hell out of the hospital.

Marsden Wagner

#2. There is no scientific evidence that doing over 10 percent of births with a cesarean improves the outcome for the woman or improves the outcome for the baby.

Marsden Wagner

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

Marsden Wagner

#4. 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.

Marsden Wagner

#5. The total number of pregnancies in which powerful and dangerous drugs are used is 60 percent, or nearly two-thirds of all births. It is rediculous to think that two-thirds of American women have such lousy uteruses that they must be whipped into shape with drugs in order to have babies.

Marsden Wagner

#6. Respecting the woman as an important and valuable human being and making certain that the woman's experience while giving birth is fulfilling and empowering is not just a nice extra, it is absolutely essential as it makes the woman strong and therefore makes society strong.

Marsden Wagner

#7. Humanizing birth means understanding that the woman giving birth is a human being, not a machine and not just a container for making babies. Showing women-half of all people-that they are inferior and inadequate by taking away their power to give birth is a tragedy for all society.

Marsden Wagner

#8. Having a highly trained obstetrical surgeon attend a normal birth is analogous to having a pediatric surgeon babysit a healthy 2-year-old.

Marsden Wagner