"You can't seriously tell me that high risk pregnancies such as mine should be delivered at home."

Well, I hesitate to tell you anything, since I don't have the words M.D. after my name so I'm sure my words will automatically have little to no weight to you.

However, I can tell you there are plenty of women who had previous deliveries with complications who went on to have normal births at home, either with a midwife or unassisted. Their stories are truly inspirational, as they prove that their bodies are not broken and perfectly able to give birth without assistance.

"Even in my case, where there are several high risk issues, my perinatalogists are willing to let me try to deliver vaginally."

Those words are extremely revealing. They're going to "let you" try, eh? Why is it up to them? Don't you have any insight or intuition about your own body? Do you only listen to what the machines are telling you? That's the first step in the downward spiral that leads from one intervention to another (but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that; you already know).

"My brother and I (both breastfed) turned out just fine."

So if you're so healthy, why is it that you have so many complications? All the healthy women I know have virtually zero birth complications, and I don't know any who had the degree of problems you do.

"Oh and I am friends with moms who have given birth all kinds of different ways, so I don't appreciate your smug insinuations."

So, please clarify, you have had friends whose babies were born medicated and were just as alert and strong as the ones who weren't? It's strange that no one will answer me on this one. Take a good look next time, if you truly have friends who give birth unmedicated.

"The bottom line is, most of us try to do what is best for our babies."

It's really bizarre that pregnant women who to try to eat a good diet and avoid alcohol and OTC medications are perfectly willing to subject their babies and their immature livers to drugs at birth, and call that "doing what's best." I don't understand that mindset at all.

"In the end, what is most important is parenting and loving your child!"

Of course that's important, but it's also important to be educated so that you don't subject your child to unnecessary interventions. All the love in the world doesn't transform a drugged, floppy baby into an alert one who doesn't have trouble nursing from the start.

"Yes, that's the national survey including women of all races, all gestational ages (including prematurity) and all pregnancy complications. So the Farm group, which was low risk white women at term had the same neonatal death rate as women of all races, all gestational ages and all possible complications. That's BAD, not good. The correct comparison would be with women of comparable risk, and when the Farm is compared with low risk white women at term, the neonatal death rate is more than DOUBLE"

That's not quite the case:

"Previous studies of home birth safety underscore the importance of having explicit comparison groups (rather than of being strictly descriptive),1 of considering planned and unplanned home births separately,2-4 of tracking intrapartum hospital transfers of intended home births (and attributing the outcome to the home birth group),5 and of controlling for the effects of birth weight, type of delivery attendant, and demographic characteristics of the mother.6,7 All these issues have been addressed in this study."

"Of the 16,327 births that ultimately constituted the NNS/NFMS, an additional 2294 were deleted from this study to eliminate those that were attended by non- physicians, those who delivered out- of- hospital, those with no prenatal care, and those in which the mother had prenatal risk factors that were used as exclusion criteria at the Farm (Table 1)."

"Stratifying both groups by birth weight or parity, comparing the entire Farm set to the NNS/NFMS subset of births from nonmetropolitan southern US areas or of White mothers only, and breaking the Farm set into groups by year of delivery did not appreciably alter the results (data not shown)."

And your insinuation that white women are automatically low-risk smacks of racism; in addition, it's the supposedly privileged white women who are often the ones going under the knife, probably because they have the "benefit" of being fully covered by health insurance.

"Women of higher socioeconomic status are more likely to have a c-section, 22.9%, compared to 13.2% of women who live in low-income families. C-section rates are highest among non-Hispanic white women (20.6%)."

http://www.answers.com/topic/caesarean-section

So, can you explain to me why the Farm's c-section rate is so absurdly low compared to the national average? Again, the c-section rate difference was 1.4% versus 16%.

How is it that 90% of the Farm women could successfully deliver at home with virtually no problems, since, according to you, birth is inherently unsafe?

You also didn't address the fact that the perinatal death outcome between the two groups was virtually identical:

%Farm Group: 1.00

%NNS/NFMS: 1.33

Dairy Queen:

You can't seriously tell me that high risk pregnancies such as mine should be delivered at home. Perhaps you missed what I said: one of my babies has prematurely ruptured membranes, meaning there is NO AMNIOTIC FLUID around him. That's why I'm in the hospital, have been here for several weeks and will be until I deliver. Not only is it a twin pregnancy, but it is a high risk twin pregnancy.

The real statistics on Ceasarean births for twins: 50% of twins are delivered by C-section. That is hardly slim to none being born vaginally, as you stated! Even in my case, where there are several high risk issues, my perinatalogists are willing to let me try to deliver vaginally. That is because my placental abruption has resolved and preterm rupture of membranes does not necessarily contraindict vaginal delivery. If it turns out I can't for risk reasons, and I will need to give birth by Ceasarean (it is still giving birth, by the way, no matter how you do it) then I accept that. And yes, I will be proud of myself no matter what happens.

I don't know much about floppy baby syndrome, but I do know that my mother gave birth to my younger brother breech in the early 70's, and had to have an epidural. I was an unmedicated birth 3 years earlier. My brother and I (both breastfed) turned out just fine. We were happy, healthy babies and are happy, healthy adults. My brother, who was medicated during birth, is a surgeon and shows no ill effects 30 something years later. Countless other people I know, children and adults, were born in the hospital, birthing centers or at home. All of them are doing just fine.

Oh and I am friends with moms who have given birth all kinds of different ways, so I don't appreciate your smug insinuations. The bottom line is, most of us try to do what is best for our babies. In the end, what is most important is parenting and loving your child!