At least the Inquisitors knew that the best person to attend a birthing mother was an experienced midwife. The only time a woman in labor needs a physician is when something goes terribly wrong. In those cases, even if she is in a hospital there is sometimes nothing that can be done. Many more women die in Virginia hospitals while giving birth than have died while being attended by a midwife legal or illegal. Unfortunately hospitals often feel that they must intervene in ways that only exacerbate small problems.
Doctors feel compelled to DO something.
I feel so strongly about the issue of choice in birthing that I have designed a company based on giving women information about their options in childbirth. I would never try to keep a woman who wanted to go to the hospital to have her baby from going there. Therefore I find it outrageous that a woman who wants to stay home and have her baby cannot legally do so with a trained assistant. I hope by next year this problem will be solved by passing the bill that was just defeated or another very similar one.