I think what was meant was *most* births(95%ish) do not have to be a medical emergency and if attended by knowledgable midwives are miraculous and boring at the same time. I am pregnant with my first and planning a miraculous, boring home birth. However, the hospital is the back-up plan should we fall in to that 5%. It sounds like the Greek women don’t have that convenience.
Back in the old days a lot of women died in childbirth from infection because of improper (or no) washing of hands, and actually at the time when births started transitioning from home to hospital is was the doctors who were causing a lot of the infection. Hospital deaths due to childbirth (infection) were higher than home births because doctors would go from patient to patient without washing hands in between. Yuck. And while on the topic, there was an article posted here not too very long ago that discussed that 20% (I think) of medical students could not identify situations in which hand washing was appropriate. This is one reason I am bound and determined to stay out of the hospital with this baby. :)
Congratulation, Roos_Girl! I bet you are very excited about your first little bundle of love and joy.
“I think what was meant...” Don’t defend him. He could have changed his statement and he didn’t. Conceiving a baby, carrying and forming that little child, laboring and finally delivering the baby is an absolute miracle. I won’t stand by and have that miracle compared to taking a dump or peeing. I won’t let it stand comparing a baby to a turd that is passed “naturally”. Yes, many women can have a baby with the help of a midwife and all is well. However, I place flowers once a year on two Aunts graves that died during childbirth. (older times without the medical knowledge we have today). I won’t get into details about the birth of my second child. However, if I had not been at a hospital, my husband and first child would have been putting flowers on my grave and my daughter’s grave every March.