In Isreal people are paid for birthing in hospitals???????  WHY?  In the
US, people often think home birth is illegal (it usually isn't), and the
doctors clearly want it to be, and insurance often won't pay lay
midwives' fees, but still...  But there is plenty of proper, mainstream
medical research that quite clearly shows that US hospital birth and
practices are NOT safe.  Is Isreal different?  What's wrong with Isreali
women birthing at home?  It's done elsewhere successfully.

Epidurals are not necessarily better than demoral (sp?).  It all depends
upon what you are looking for (I mean this from a patient's view, not a
medical view).  If you want something brief, that won't make your legs
numb, and you THINK will let move around (not that it actually will), you
may choose demoral.  Especially if the medical attendants assure you that
you won't deliver for 2 hours yet, and therefore it will all have left
the baby's system and won't affect the baby at all (this is not supported
by research, nor by the anecdotal evidence at LLL meetings...).

The hospital that I delivered my 3rd in had jacouzzis in each
room--that's why I chose that hospital.  The nurses all said they
encouraged the water more than drugs....it worked better!  I don't know
if it affected their overall drug/natural birth numbers, but it clearly
helped their attitudes towards those of us who were truly prepared for
natural birth!  I have met more people recently who take a 2 day several
hour crash course on birth, several weeks before the due date...how much
good will that do, and how little BF info they must offer?