He obviously has only your best interests in mind. His very words are like gifts. He talks nostalgically about his New Year's Day deliveries. You feel a sudden fondness for him when he says he has lost track of how many he's performed. But then a curious comment passes his lips.
Home deliveries are just too dangerous.
A chill creeps in beneath your coat. You know that medical research studies from every developed country in the world show home birth with a trained midwife in attendance to be safer in every category than hospital birth, for most mothers and babies. His words, once comforting in their music, now ring harshly in your ears. The winter landscape, once magical, now seems full of hidden dangers. The spell has been broken.