Dear Jan: What a great post about choices in birth! Good for you. People forget that labor and birth is how humans get on this Earth, that it is normal, that birth and death are normal events. I believe that part of our problems with society and health care today stems from the transplanting of normal human events (birth and death) from the home to the hospital. That has only happened in the 20th century, and the reason was to give student doctors practice, not for the good of the people. Now, instead of normal events, they have become terrifying and expensive mysteries. Chances are better for healthy moms that babies will be healthy at home. We don't do medications or epidurals at home because of the risk. Breastfeeding more frequently becomes derailed in hospitals, not at home. We all have lots of work in lactation because hospitals and the health care system have to be educated and negotiated with and informed; not because breastfeeding and birth are inherently flawed activities. And of course we need the technology and the hospitals. Just not for everybody. Fortunately today, women have choices. If those choices were truly honored, and based on evidence, it would be a wonderful world and I would be out of a job. Off the soapbox now.... Warmly, Nikki Lee RN, MSN, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CSTP, CIMI Elkins Park (a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, northeastern USA) *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html