I understand that the point being made in this article is that this is a choice that should be available to women if they so choose. I read no criticism or calls of “bad mother” to those choosing the hospital route.

Bev, you are right in saying that due to good care we have bought the maternal death rate down, what I think is interesting to note though is that this is mainly because of good prenatal care, e.g. identifying problems before the women goes into labour. We are now able to identify which women need high levels of care and which don’t.

When problems come up in any birth there are warning signs, at a homebirth this is picked up straight away because the midwife remains with the women. This might take a lot longer in a hospital where the doctors and midwives are attending to multiple women at one time. This gives the hospital time to prep the operating room or a home birthing mother time to get to the hospital.

You also make a comment that you would never consider a home birth because of safety, but speak of epidurals as a golden choice. I have worked in maternity care for many years and can assure all those reading my post that epidurals have many risks and are responsible for more emergency caesareans than any other intervention. The world health organisation has many studies to back this claim.

Maybe the use pain relieving drugs, including an epidural was the cause of your daughters emergency caesarean?