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It's Ms Lunarbaboon here. You may know me from such comics as the one you are discussing right now! Thought I'd weigh in here on this interesting debate. I agree with GimmeCat that context IS important. In Ontario, where we live, Midwives are fully trained, skilled and equipped to deliver babies in a hospital, home and birthing centres. Studies in Canada show that infant mortality is the same, regardless of birthplace. At each home birth there are two midwives (one for the mom and one for the baby) and they come with all the equipment they may require for a regular birth and for complications. They come with pitocin (synthetic oxytocin) in case of a hemorrhage. They also come with antibiotics in case of a Strep B infection which all women in Ontario are testing for early in the third trimester. They are also able to help treat and prevent pre-eclampisa. If a women is deemed high-risk at any point in her pregnancy, she is transferred to the care of a doctor.

GC, you say "there is really no good reason not to go in" if we had access to socialized healthcare, which we do in Ontario. I can give you several. The choice, in the end should up to the person who is in labour (assuming there is no increased level of risk). When women feel unsafe, their labours can stall, which can cause fetal stress. Feeling safe, supported and comfortable is paramout to a positive birth outcome. Some women feel safe at home, others in the hospital. Another reason some people chose home birth is because of what GoldeFalcon noted, that augmentations to the birthing process, like an epidural, can lead to more interventions. This is what happened when our son, Moishe was born. We went to the hospital, got an epidural, this caused the contractions to slow down, so then they had to introduce pitocin, which caused a drop in the fetal heart rate, which caused Moishe to poop in the birth canal, which he then swallowed. When he was born doctors needed to aspirate him. Swallowing meconium (poop) can have negative health outcomes for the baby and in rare cases can cause death.

Some people choose to not to go to a hospital because of the increased (although pretty low) of acquiring an infectious disease. We live in Toronto, but there are many communities in Ontario where getting to a hospital, especially in the winter can take hours. In these cases homebirths have saved thousands of lives!

In our case, we did want a home birth, but were open to moving to the hospital if we needed or wanted to. In the end we did not have a choice, once I went into active labour, the baby was born in less than hour! It would have been more dangerous to try to get to a hospital then to stay at home.

Finally,

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