I agree with your post. I gave birth to all 3 of mine in the hospital. The first was a normal birth, but I was in labor so long that I was exhausted, and the epidural was blessing.
I waited as long as possible to go to the hospital for #2, and it turns out that the cord was wrapped around her head TWICE, and at every contraction, her heartbeat stopped. They used the plunger to get her out in a hurry, but I have no doubt that a C-section could have been imminent. If I had been at home, she might have died.
#3: used my OB-practices nurse-practioner midwives. Had the baby in the hospital, easy birth.....but knew that there was a doctor on call just down the hall if complications arose.
Natural birth is wonderful.......if all goes according to plan.
Laboring at home allows the labor process to proceed uninterrupted, but only because the hospital, with bossy uniformed staff with their fluorescent lighting naturally stop the labor process, but that pesky umbilical cord does get in the way all too often, so one would never be well advised to labor at home. Csections, inductions and all of the trappings ARE better than the alternative, of course.
Natural birth IN the hospital is ideal. Problem is the staff takes over instead of realizing their actual role - support in case of emergency. Babies really have been arriving naturally for millennia.
The Germans manage to do natural childbirth in the hospital and it seems to work.
It is actually the staff who need to make the hospital environment more like home; they are the ones who are well advised to not ony alter the environment, but to inform the mom about the process. They don’t want to do this, as they need to justify financially all of their staff and equipment- the system is addicted to it- equipment and pharmaceuticals.
Oh, well. I guess I need to write about it.