Industrialized nations such as ours would not stand for another branch of medicine being practiced with antiquated and unscientifically supported methods and beliefs- can you imagine a heart surgeon using techniques from the 1950s?!! And, yet, that is exactly what hospital staff (obstetricians and their colleagues) are doing to women in labor! Women in our country have been sold a pack of lies. Birth is not dangerous! Interference is dangerous! I am a homebirth mom and also a certified Doula. As a Doula I see firsthand the mistreatment of women and their babies and the abuse of power from hospital staff. The misuse and abuse of medication and unnecessary routine procedures during labor and birth causing a cascade of further interventions (iatrogenic)- an astounding amount of it not even supported by scientific evidence! (Browse the works of Henci Goer and Dr. Marsden Wagner.) Homebirth for healthy women with a skilled attendant (i.e., a midwife) is safe- the woman is supported in creating an healthy pregnancy to avoid complications, in staying vertical and mobile during labor , encouraged to eat and drink, to go at HER pace, to trust her instincts, and to assume any pushing position SHE wants. Scientific evidence (and common sense) says the best pushing position is vertical- not lying flat on your back pulling your knees to your ears! Hello fetal distress and maternal exhaustion! Hospital births with their supine pushing positions, withholding of food and drink, dangerous medications with all their side effects, impatient and busy doctors and nurses, electronic fetal monitors, episiotomies, immobility, inductions, cesarean sections, et al are dangerous. Why is everyone questioning the safety of homebirth when the countries who employ more midwives and have more homebirths per capita loose FEWER babies and mothers at the time of birth than in America- where we rank an embarrassing #28 (according to the CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/omhd/amh/factsheets/infant.htm) in infant mortality and where most women give birth in a hospital?! Birth is safer in Cuba, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic than in the US for crying out loud! (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html). We should, instead, be questioning the integrity and safety of the entire obstetrical monopoly. Obstetricians are surgeons & I am thankful they are available to me if my life was in danger. But normal birth is safe and obstetricians have no business managing normal birth. High-risk birth, yes, normal birth (which are most of them!!) no. If you do not want surgery (e.g., episiotomy or cesarean) then do NOT go to a surgeon. I would love to come on your show both as a homebirth mom and as a birth professional. People absolutely have the wrong idea about homebirth- but that is because they have the wrong idea about birth. Birth is not a medical emergency as we have been taught from shows like TLC’s A Baby Story, ER and other soap operas. Only rarely does it need medical intervention- very rarely. And then thank goodness for the hospital with all its life-saving equipment. I am not anti- hospital nor am I anti-doctor. I am anti lies. The truth is: Birth is safe. Interference is risky.

I love this quote and think it sums it all up perfectly: "The midwife considers the miracle of childbirth as normal, and leaves it alone unless there's trouble. The obstetrician normally sees childbirth as trouble: if [s/he] leaves it alone, it's a miracle." (Sheila Stubbs)