EP12 Pamela Hunt: The Farm, Midwifery, and starting it all on a caravan of buses in the 70s!

Not A Mama Yet

Episode 12 feels like a particularly special episode. I had the pleasure of interviewing Pamela Hunt. If you have heard of the book Spiritual Midwifery or The Farm in Summertown, Tennessee, you may have heard of her. In the 1970s, Pamela was part of a caravan of eighty school buses that went across the United States led by Stephen Gaskin. Stephen was a teacher in San Francisco when his writing class evolved into a discussion group that grew to have 1500 students in attendance each week. A lot of the hippies in attendance made up the caravan and their mission was to save the world! As women became pregnant and started to give birth during their trip, Pamela and a group of a few other women including Ina May Gaskin, Stephen’s wife, fell into the role of the midwives assisting in the deliveries. Over time and with the help of doctors across the U.S. who donated their time and resources to train them, Pamela, Ina May and the others became well-adept in handling various scenarios from hemorrhages, premature babies, breached births, and multiple births of twins and even triplets.

Once they settled and established The Farm, they eventually opened the midwifery center, which still exists today. People travel to be trained by Pamela and her team there and they come to be clients of the center as well. When I was planning my trip to Tennessee in April, I found out I would be close enough to visit The Farm and immediately jumped at the opportunity. Pamela was off-site that weekend for a training, but we managed to catch up over the phone and I had the pleasure of talking with her for the podcast. This episode is so special to me because of all that Pamela has done for midwifery in the United States, including her assistance in developing the certification system for midwives today, and her vast knowledge on pregnancy, birth and helping women through it all!

My main takeaways:

-Amish people have been practicing midwifery forever and Pamela still works with them to this day.

-Frequency of appointments are the same with a midwife compared to an OBGYN, but the appointment is 1-2 hours long per appointment with a midwife and covers lifestyle, diet, physical health, and sex, among other things. They start preparing women and couples mentally for delivery from the first appointment.

-Midwifery is a huge commitment. If you have a family, it could be harder to do unless you have a solid support system of people around you who can jump in at any moment.

-Pamela has tips on what women can do and what support they need to prevent postpartum depression. Sleeping 4-6 hours within the first 24 hours is crucial and having someone to watch the baby so you can do that is important. Another is having someone take care of you for the first ten days so your only priority is being with and bonding with the baby.

-Pamela helped develop the certification for people to become midwives in the United States.

-Midwives stress health, nutrition, and good habits so women gain an incredible education by working with midwives that they can carry into motherhood and pass down to their child and family!

You can find more on Pamela and The Farm here:

-Midwifery Center

-Pamela’s Bio

-The Farm

I hope you enjoyed this episode! Would love to know what you thought about it! DM me on Instagram here.

Natalie

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