intervention indispensable. If obstetricians acknowledged the fact that
more than ninety-five percent of births proceed entirely without
complications, more than ninety-five percent of their services would be
recognized as unnecessary. That would mean a lot fewer obstetricians - as
well as healthier families. Instead, what we have is childbirth taking place
in an operating room. Of course, it may not be a bad idea to have all
hospital births occur in an operating room, since hospital births are a lot
more dangerous. Babies born in the hospital are six times more likely to
suffer distress during labor and delivery, eight times more likely to get
caught in the birth canal, four times more likely to need resuscitation,
four times more likely to become infected, and thirty times more likely to
be permanently injured. Their mothers are three times more likely to
hemorrhage."
"Confessions of a Medical Heretic" by Robert S. Mendelsohn, MD
