Letter: A home birth can end up in hospital, but it is worth the risk

Letter: A home birth can end up in hospital, but it is worth the risk

ANY PRESSURE exerted by the small minority who campaign for home and natural births is minute compared with that exerted by the majority, including most of the medical profession, who believe hospital birth to be the only sensible option. I chose home birth for both my daughters and was subjected each time to nine months of opprobrium.

It is not the life-saving Caesarean which is a cause for concern to those promoting natural birth but the relentless increase in non-emergency (often unnecessary) surgery and other invasive techniques employed in hospital births. If we continue to follow the US it may become illegal for a woman to give birth at home. No woman should be made to feel guilty for the type of birth she either chooses or ends up having, but to deny that choice is tragic and dangerous.

Kate Wilson

Oxford