Midwifery is catching

Gestational diabetes screening with no other indications
GBS screening in general
The huge number of appointments pregnant women attend (WHO recommends 2-3, average that I’ve seen is 12)
Multiple ultrasounds for low-risk women
CTG monitoring for low-risk women
The use of the word "delivery"
Having clocks in the room
Lack of options for women to have continuity of care
Women being told their babies are due at 38wks
Anyone except someone experienced in balloting babes estimating their size
The change in the definition of "natural" to include everything short of a c-section
People who talk to everyone in the room except the woman - especially those that talk over the woman as she is labouring
Women birthing on beds, jacked up to eye level, so her previously-private parts are the centre of attention
Not washing your hands before doing anything
Not asking permission before touching - mother or babe

So, I am a student. Any work that I do is covered by my university’s insurance, and I have to work under their direction and in their scope of comfort. As such, I am not allowed to do anything remotely involved with a homebirth. Short of swearing on a stack of constitutions (as I don’t do bibles) the university has just had to trust students not to do this.

I have worked hard to get here, and I want to stay here (being a metaphorical reference to "enrolled to get my qualification" rather than "dressed up but sitting at my desk as I have nothing interesting to do today") so after being all righteous about the subject earlier this year, I have since come to the conclusion that I don’t want to risk my studies by taking a stance about something like this. I do undertstand the politics of homebirth here. I do understand that some at the university support mid students every step of the way, but there truly is only so far that they can go. I do understand that independent midwives do not work with any kind of insurance, and if I as a student am caught up in a legal case with a wiff of liability then the university may get dragged into it.

But that doesn’t stop me being passionate about homebirthing.

If you have a minute, go and read (or reread) What Women Aren’t Told About Childbirth

Key points (edited so I don’t steal too much of the article:

• Obstetricians are surgeons, who have probably rarely seen a natural birth - it’s unlikely they’re going to support you if you want one unless they’re very open minded.
• People ask more questions about major purchases than about the birth of their family.
• Don’t argue that it’s unsafe to birth at home or in a birth centre - show me that it’s safe to birth in hospital.
• Pitocin has never been approved by the FDA for augmenting labour.
• Continuous electronic fetal monitoring is not very useful for indicating fetal distress, and when you’re on the monitor you’re trussed up like a turkey, unable to move around and manage pain or use gravity, so c-section rates rise.
• Women who can’t afford private insurance have better outcomes for birth.
• Birth has changed from a normal process to a medically-managed crisis

Where have I been? Placement, actually. 2 weeks of catching babies in a rural hospital. Highlights included:

• 7 births in two weeks
• One 25 minute birth
• Being there for women who had had no continuity of care throughout their pregnancy
• Having a baby (middle) named after me
• Going from "tandem" births to "independent"
• Getting glowing feedback from my supervisors and encouragements to come back for a job at the end 

Some of the lowlights were pretty low - widespread use of lots of pethidine in labour, , lots and lots of sterile sheets used under birthing women (which are promptly covered in bodily fluids of course!), CTGs at the drop of a hat and for every - or no - reason, a hospital where no woman reaches term / has a spontaneous labour and birth, seen examples of induction at ?36 weeks, and the insistence on
a lot of disinfectant on the vagina prior to crowning. There was also a 50% ish reluctance to accept direct-entry midwives as competent professionals, and people were dead against me being on placement without already being a nurse.

I wonder whether this happens in the USA, or in NZ, or Canada.  

Am nearly finished first year. I am weary - study is hard going, life gets in the way of me doing things when they should be done, and I really need to do today what I can do today, rather than putting it of til tomorrow, because tomorrow I may be called to a birth, or something else.

I still ask - Do I just co-operate and graduate? Do I try to ask questions about the "why" behind things? How do I not offend people I work beside by even asking this question??? Is it offensive for me to question it, or do people welcome my new and naive questions?