“To understand the roots of The Farm, you have to go back to about 1965. Drop City, the first full-blown prototype hip commune, was founded in May of that year. The Grateful Dead were moving into 710 Ashbury, establishing a hip outpost in the tony Panhandle district of San Francisco. Prankster-author Ken Kesey's acid tests began in November. The Diggers emerged as a social movement that winter. 1966 brought the Trips Festival and the Summer of Love. Janis Joplin hitch-hiked in from Texas. Lou Gottlieb opened his Morning Star ranch to all comers. On October 6, 1966, California outlawed LSD-25, but it didn't stop the first Human Be-In, paisleys and flower power, White Rabbit, or the Whole Earth Catalog.” -Albert Bates; in America's Communal Religions, Syracuse Univ. Press, 1995.

For over 25 years The Farm has been a community for the community. Though it's hippy extremest days are long gone, their values still hold strong. Now in supply of 6 Certified Nurse Midwifes to aid women in all natural child home birthing their practice is still going strong in Summertown, Tennessee. They strive to meet the physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual and cultural needs of each individual woman and couple that requests their services.

The Farm now offers women better prenatal care and doula services are part of the package. Because of their strong midwife values and the use of doulas during labor, The Farm has less than a 2% rate of C-Sections, incredibly low rates for medicinal pain intervention, the need for forceps and episiotomies. During prenatal care they educate women on what their bodies are going through and how natural it all really is. Instilling comfort in knowing that your body will do what it is supposed to do naturally and understanding it can go a long way for a mother to be when going through labor and delivery.

Women are now coming from all over to experience giving birth at The Farm. Today, they have a house on The Farm that is used as their birthing center and for prenatal care called the Tower Road House. Expectant mothers who live near by can make appointments like you would at any other clinic or doctor's office and those that are coming from afar can make arrangements to stay in one of the many home-like cabins on The Farm itself. Like all other Midwifes, these ladies to work with the aid of a doctor in case there are any complications or needed intervention that they themselves cannot handle. Each Midwife is certified by the North American Registry of Midwives and are also certified to practice the state of Tennessee with the Tennessee Midwives Association.

For more information on The Farm and the Midwives as well as birth stories from women who have delivered on The Farm you can take a look at their website at www.thefarm.org. The Farm also has many books in print such as Spiritual Midwifery and Voices from the Farm as well as many others. The Farm in it's entirety amazing to say the least and is definitely worth at least reading more about.