Just want to throw in another perspective (again!!). In the Netherlands we do not routineously give epidurals. Women attend relaxation classes during pregnancy that help them to cope with the pain during labor. These classes work. Insurance compagnies happily pay for them, bc it is shown that women who have attended these classes have shorter labor stage and need less interventions. epidurals are only used if necessary: eg woman has lots of pain in a endless during delivery. but if the woman doesn't want to, she doesn't get it. For the first exam in her pregnancy every women goes to a midwife. That is around 12 weeks. The midwife screens the woman, and decides if this case need to be treated as a medical case, or as a 'normal' case. If it's a medical case the woman goes to the gyneacologist, otherwise the midwife controls the woman and attends the delivery. During the pregnancy women can swap from midwife to gyn, or vice versa, depending of what happens. About one out of three pregnancies are considered 'medical', that is, has a higher risk than normal, and are controlled by the gyneacologist. We say: a midwife is for normal pregnancies and normal deliveries, and the gyn is for the high-risk pregnancies and deliveries . A women who is controlled by a gyn, will give birth in a hospital, the women who give birth with a midwife are allowed to choose between the hospital (still attended by the midwife) and at home. Half of them choose to give birth at home. Several researches have shown this is as safe as hospital births, and are in fact a bit faster and have a bit fewer interventions. Though the difference isn't very big. when something happens during the delivery, eg the midwife sees meconium in the water, the woman is transported to the hospital. This is not seen as a failure of the births-at-home system, but instead seen as a sign the birth system is safe: only when needed the medical system is in charge. We live in a small countru, so 99% of all people can be in a hospital within 20 minutes. The deliveries in the hospital either attended by a midwife or by a gyneacologist are also pretty mother and baby friendly: woman is surrounded by friends, if she want to, she is allowed to take a bath, to shower, walk around, etc and push in the position she wants to. We have a c-section rate of 8%. Breech babies do not routineously result in a ceasarian. These ougth to find place in the hospital, bc stage 3 of the delivery have to be faster. There is no such thing as a VBAC (as a 'political' phrase). Women who had a c-section aren't routineously adviced agaist a vaginal birth. It depends on the reason for the c-section. We have one of the lowest perinatal mortality rate of the world, together with the Scandinavian countries. This is due to the birthing system , but also due to good screening during pregnancy and good postnatal care. Every woman who wants to gets a maternity nurse over her house for 7 to 10 days after the delivery. This is true for home births and hospital births as well. This maternity nurse controls mother and baby, and runs the household during 8 hours a day. The midwife also attends the women every day, till 7 days after delivery. Midwifes are very good educated and trained. Much better than in surrouding countries, where midwifes often are kind of supporter of the gyn. These midwifes aren't allowed to work in our country, unless they've run extra classes. Now, if only the bf situation was that good, I would be very happy!!! Unfortunately bf isn't seen as important. almost half of the people who start with breastfedeing, stop nursing during the first week. Probably on advice of the midwifes who think the women needs her rest, and bc of the bad advice the maternity nurses give. :( Annelies Bon Breastfeeding Resources http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/abon/bfbronnen.html breastfeeding counsellor of the Dutch bf org "Borstvoeding Natuurlijk" mailto:[log in to unmask] living in a small city, Almere, near Amsterdam, The Netherlands ps, my sons were born at home. My oldest boy was suctioned, and the midwife said jokingly; 'look, he tries to suck on it". I had much trouble with latching on but this was also due to other things. He probably had a severe headache. His back head was twice as long as it became later. He looked like he was delivered by vacuum. He was 4490 gram and his head was (and still is) above the p99 on the growth charts. He also got lots and lots and lots of sugar water what made him nausuated.