I have never felt that birth was off-topic to breastfeeding and indeed that it is the pivotal isuue in the US. I want to point outt, however, that as well-intentioned as it may be,  efforts to prove that homebirth is "justv as safe" as hospital birth is like trying to prove that breastfeeding is just as safe as artificial feeding. And, I would argue that while women may be able to have unmedicated births in the hospital (usually only by luck here and very rarely), women cannot have physiologically normal, undisturbed birth in a hopital. Unmedicated hospital birth is IMO, the equaivalent to feeding pumped breastmilk in a bottle--way better that AIM in a bottle, but in no way compares to the physiologic norm. Our bodies will never respond in the same way. Again, I urge every person on this list to go to the APPPAH website and subscribe to the journal  (no financial connection). I believe it is essential that LC's understand the nature of the pre and perinatal life of the infant if we are to really value the choices that we as a society make that serve to diminish human potential. It doesn't begin when we do not breastfeed. 
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA