I'm just home after a trip to Amsterdam to help when my grandson was born.  A
planned home delivery with midwife care turned into a high-tech hospital
birth, complete with internatl monitors and pitocin stimulation due to
meconium in the amnionic fluid.  I was pleased & delighted that my son-in-law
and I were welcomed to stay and give support, even fed a warm lunch and tea!
 Even with an internal monitor and pitocin my daughter was encouraged to get
out of bed, take a hand=held shower, change her position.  It made such a
difference.  The little boy was born with a Apgar of 10 and at the breast
within 10 min.  The new family was discharged in five hours and then --the
good part began.
The Dutch have a system of home postpartum care with includes a
krammnurse((cradle nurse).  She comes to the house for 7 days, 5 hours each
day where she assists the new mother & family with the baby, helps with
breastfeeding, cleans the bathroom, cooks dinner and, if you had kids , would
pick them up and drop them off at school.  I'ts not free, the Dutch pay high
taxes but they have determined that this type of support is necessary and
they are willing to pay for it.
I left everyone with regret but with the assurance that they would be cared
for in the community and within a system designed to support families.
 Barbara Hayes , new grandmother