Hey Skipmonkey...do you understand the concept of a "Joke?"

As my wife went unassisted when she gave birth to our daughter, I thought I should chime in. Sidenote, our daughter was born without complications and is now a healthy, happy, 6 month old infant.

My wife gave birth in a large hot tub in our basement, with candles, incense and the music of her choice. The lights were dimmed or turned off and she was free to eat or drink whatever she wanted. She used hypnosis and breathing to help with the labor pain. Still, even with the best environment we could set up, she was (to say the least) in a fair amount of discomfort.

Was this the right choice? For her, it was. Not wanting submit to hospitals and the invasive (often ineffective) procedures they like to administer to laboring mothers was a no brainer. Fetal heart monitors, intervenous drips, episiotomies have all been shown to have a limited impact on healthy mothers with normal pregancies. Not to mention the scary rate of c-sections.

But why not a midwife? The problem is that many midwives have been drifting closer to becoming mini-doctors rather then true birth assistents. Like doctors, many midwives now substitute medical knowlege for personal warmth and caring. As a consequence, a woman who wants the freedom to make her own medical decissions has to look further a field then even a midwife. As for pre-natal care, a lot of providers won't even see a woman who isn't giving birth in a hospital.

Is there a perfect birthing solution? I doubt it. Ultimately it is up to the mother to be to decide what is best for her.

Please tell me that you didn't just mean to say that all mothers are prostitutes . . . ?

I'm appalled that anyone could say that women are the true experts in childbirth and then breathlessly dismiss the thought of a midwife. What a sad, discouraging thought; that in the name of 'freedom,' some women reject the very notion of sharing a birth. There was, for me, something terribly lonely about giving birth; having loved ones by me-- and an experienced labor nurse at my side-- made things infinitely easier.

And labor pains come from the fear of a hospital? I suppose my monthly cramps are the result of my fear of...months?

Lillian, for many years hospitals were a cause of the high maternal death rate, before handwashing became an accepted norm. I have no problems with home birth, as long as certain precautions are taken. But a home birth shouldn't be a lone birth.

What's the difference between freebirthing and having the baby in the taxicab on the way to the hospital? Maybe the papers filter out all the stories where it ends with the death of the child, because I can't recall one where there was a problem with the baby or the mother.

Our child was born in a hospital, but that was for my wife's fear that something bad may happen to our child, and my fear that something bad may happen to my wife.

"Freebirthing" is insanity. I am all for a more woman friendly childbirth but this is out to lunch. I think what has happened is that women have forgotten how many women have died in childbirth for centuries. Our low maternal death rate is due to medical advances. I'll give you home birth, no problem. But unassisted birth is not only dangerous but unnatural. Why? Because the community has always been involved in the birthing process - a midwife, a neighbor, or your mother. This is a fad that won't last. I hope.

...I think the prostitution had to take place before the midwife could be hired...

"One child, born premature in her bathtub, did not survive."

I think that says it all.

Free-birthing is an over-reaction to the notion that childbirth is some sort of disease. Both are wrong and dangerous.

For too long we've kept Chuck Darwin out of the loop. Let the merciless hand of utter fucking stupidity rejigger the gene pool.

"Labor pain as a psychosomatic response to fear?" Are you kidding me? I haven't been through it myself, but it seems to me that simple physics would refute that one. Orifice roughly the size of a lime, accommodating the passage of an item the size of a watermelon? The word OW springs to mind. Repeatedly.

Let's talk about the human pelvis.

Unlike our closest ancestors (primates) human beings can walk and run upright for very long periods of time and very fast. This evolutionary advantage has served us well. Human beings have spanned the globe, and we did it on foot, long before cars, trains and planes.

The downside it that the tilt of our pelvis that allows us to walk upright with such ease, complicates childbirth. Human babies are born face down. Well, usually. And they are born in sucha fashion that makes it difficult and dangerous for a woman to assist in her own child birth. A mother cannot safely extract her child from the birth canal. So human labor is long, painful and requires assistance. Primates on the other hand have quick relatively painless births without assistance. But they can't scoop up their newborn and run from large predators either.

Our ancestors underwent changes that made assisted birth a necessity, BUT they also had evolved social networks that guaranteed that mothers would never be alone in childbirth. It's only now in our modern era that a pregnant woman would be separted from her family and community.

People love to say that prostitution is the oldest profession, but I assure you that MIDWIFE is the oldest profession. To call unassisted birth a good idea and paint it as natural is incredibly ignorant. As Miss Harris stated, more press needs to be given to providing safe and comfortable birth to mothers. That means a birth that is assisted and balances the needs of mother, child and society. For some women that means drugs and hospitals, for some midwives at home. For many others it is something in between.