And Bonnie is right. If you think you're better off in a hospital, if you assume you're safer, you don't know the facts. The purpose of this paper is to give you the facts. The first is that childbirth is a dangerous medical crisis requiring a great deal of technological intervention. This is not true.
All mammals give birth to live offspring.
It is a simple, uncomplicated process which does NOT involve a state of illness. The second wrong idea is that it is better, safer, wiser, easier and normal to have a baby in a hospital. But this tradition only holds true for right here, right now. In other countries, most births are handled by midwives, and only those cases with serious, risky complications are admitted to a hospital. Home birth was the tradition in this country, too, at one time.