It's all about control by the medical community. My daughter HAS to deliver by c-section...due to an accident a few years ago. However, after the last baby, she signed herself out of the hospital AMA after 48 hours. They were more than interventionist. Kept doing blood sugar levels on the baby because she was allegedly "large for gestational age"...8lbs 9oz full-term baby girl. Gimme a fricken break...They were NOT supportive of my daughter's choice to breastfeed. She finally kicked the so-called "lactation consultant" out of the room telling them "my mother nursed the 3 of us and she damn sure knows what she's doing"...(let's hear it for good old mom). The LC was PISSED as hell.
My first birth...pitocin, internal monitoring...second and third...nope. My longest labor was 3 and a half hours...by the time I got to the third baby, just over an hour and a half (don't hate me, please???). IF I had had more babies, they would have been born at home, probably unattended...I despised the thought of paying thru the nose for some "doctor" to come catch the baby after I had done all the work.
Birth has been medicalized...no more "baby will come when baby is ready"...and the harm that's being done to mothers and babies is UNREAL. Don't get me wrong...medical intervention in pregnancy has saved many moms and babies, but for a routine, low risk pregnancy and birth, it really isn't needed.
TB of the "crunchy" birth crowd.