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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I just want to add something to these fantastic responses.

There is a HUGE difference between being supportive of natural birth and being highly experienced in natural birth. If you decide to go whole hog natural birth, for instance, and read Ina May Gaskin, you will see just how rare complications are when a practitioner is extremely experienced and trained to handle complications with positioning and other non-medical methods.

Now, these are things I don't think they spend a lot of time covering in med school; on the other hand, there's no way I would want Ina May to perform my c-section (and she wouldn't volunteer, I'm sure). My OB told me she didn't care at all whether her patients had natural childbirth; totally up to us. But her training and experience and worldview were medical, of course, and she was not there to help support me through a natural childbirth and try to avoid Pitocin/epidural-- that was not her job; her job was delivering a healthy baby. So I think even if your OB is supportive of natural birth, you should be aware that the burden is on you, and your provider should tell you this: to stay out of the hospital as long as possible (and this is harder than you think for a first time mom; none of us THINKS she is going to be the one to show up at the hospital 2 cm dilated and in a great deal of pain), to hope you will not have a poorly positioned baby or non-textbook contractions or other issues that most in the medical profession do not have tons of experience handling "naturally."

Just something to chew on and something I'm sure that The Business of Being Born brought up? It's not necessarily a conspiracy-- I don't think so, at least!-- it's just a matter of the training that OBs receive. They know all the worst things that can happen during birth, are trained to deal with them, and in context Pitocin and epidurals seem like medical miracles, not negative things at all. A doula can help you, but doulas actually are not meant to try to intervene in your medical care.[/quote]

Wonderfully put, PP!  I also wanted to suggest reading Ina May Gaskin's book, "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth".  Hands down the most comprehensive book covering natural childbirth.[/quote]

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