Passionate Freewrititng- Choices on Where and How to Labor and Give Birth

I think that women should have the choice to labor and birth however she chooses. It's only in the last five years that Missouri women could chose to have a midwife attend her home birth without worrying that the midwife was committing a felony! In the culture in which we live today, it is very unusual to be given many choices surrounding this most sacred of journeys. Labor and birth is a powerful right of passage and I think women should think about it a little more than most of us do today. In advocating for the choice to birth at home, with or without assistance, with or without medication, whomever present that the mother chooses, I also advocate for the option to have a highly medicalized birth as well. Though I don't think the latter is the best option for most women and their families I do think it should be available to those who desire or medically require it. Birth is a natural process that women have been doing without doctors for centuries. While the fledgling profession of medicine was still using leaches and blood-letting, induced vomiting and using electroshock treatments, women all over the world were giving birth to babies at home, in their own environments, in perfect safety.