thought mine were going to be low, but they were not!The most important thing is that we each get as much choice as is possible and are left to feel alright about those choices. I actually love you. this is exactly how I feel too. I've had three children, and I live in quite a hippy / organic / yoga / nauseatingly middle class area, where it really did feel like some kind of martyrdom competition with everyone trying to out 'all you need is a bean bag' each other and have the most 'organic' child birth possible, as if the more pain you felt, the better mother you'd be. If I heard one more person tell me about the dangers of a 'highly medicalised birth' I thought I would scream. It made me want to walk around with a big sign saying 'elective caesareans rule ok'. Which perhaps evidences that despite being a 32 year old mother of 3, I actually still behave like I am 5. I really feel that it is the choice of the woman giving birth, and everyone else should just back the hell off. Happy mums make happy babies and it is painful enough giving birth without also having to deal with everyone else's opinions on how you should do it. I gave birth to my daughter (only child) in Amsterdam at home. No pain relief except a hot rice sock pressed into the small of my back (you fill a sock with dry