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I understand your concern, theglimmering, but a lot of what you say is standard just isn't, at least not where I live. (These things do vary from region to region and hospital to hospital.) My baby is four months old, and even with a doubly high-risk pregnancy (42 years old, type 1 diabetes) I didn't have most of the interventions you describe. I knew going in that I'd have an IV and fetal monitoring -- with diabetes, it would be stupid not to -- and I eventually requested an epidural. But that's it -- nobody even mentioned forceps or vacuum extraction, even though the pushing stage was pretty protracted (over two hours). No cameras, no episiotomy. As far as I know, shaving and enemas have not been common practice for at least 10 years. My baby was at my breast less than 10 minutes after she was born; I don't know anybody who was kept from her baby for longer than that unless she had had a c-section. And I didn't have to insist on any of this, even though my own OB wasn't able to be there, and I didn't have a birth plan -- because none of these interventions are standard at the hospital where I gave birth.
