Letter: Home births

Sir: What Yasmin Alibhai-Brown calls "wittering" is the genuine concern of the NCT and others to halt the unnecessary medicalisation of normal pregnancy and childbirth.

The reluctance of GPs and obstetricians to support home birth is hardly surprising since virtually none of them will have ever attended one. It is midwives who look after women in normal childbirth and it is very unusual for a doctor to be involved in home birth. The midwife is trained to spot a situation that is becoming abnormal and act accordingly, and most referrals to a doctor during pregnancy are from the midwife doing her job.

Most women who choose to have their baby at home do so because they want a better experience with more respect for their privacy than they had last time in hospital, or they simply reason that they are not ill, so why go to hospital?

ELSPETH SEWELL R.G.N. R.M.

Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire