For those who gasp at the idea of a homebirth...

Here's an article from BBC news that actually has some truthful and positive things to say about the safety of homebirths.  There's still a bit of the "medical community fear persuasion" language, but overall it sheds some good light on what all of our female ancestors did up until a couple hundred years ago.  (And, yes, some died in childbirth, but check out this article for a surprising report on the current maternal death rate in America.)

They asked for feedback from anyone who has experienced a homebirth so here's what I wrote:

I am days away from my second homebirth and really value the experience. It's wonderful to give birth in a familiar, warm place with educated, intuitive midwives who treat birth as the natural process it was created to be rather than the potential emergency or legal drama that the medical community views it as. Doesn't anyone think it's strange that birth is the only time you go to the hospital when you're NOT sick?  

I agree that women need to know the potential risk of birth in general, but in our culture, they also need to be educated that for the majority of us, our bodies are completely capable of giving birth without major interventions and miraculously equipped to do so. And women should also be informed of the increased risk and consequences of c-sections, episiotomies, epidurals, etc. due to the unnecessary use of interventions and practices in modern-day hospitals. This has slowly and unfortunately replaced the natural knowledge and sensible practices that midwives and birthing women have known for centuries.  

For further information, read anything written by Ina May Gaskin, check out www.mothering.com and watch Ricki Lake's documentary "The Business of Being Born." Thanks for publishing this article and asking for feedback.