Santa Rosa, Calif. midwife Stacey Marie Kerr's new book, Homebirth in the Hospital, aims to help expectant couples find a balance between medical care and natural childbirth.
According to the article in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Kerr, who has worked with legendary midwife Ina May Gaskin, believes that, while hospital personnel often overreact and intervene too much, some couples -- likely, the majority in our society -- will still need or choose to have a hospital birth.
Her book tells the stories of 15 women who managed to have closer-to-natural births in hospitals. There are thousands of women who went into a hospital expecting a natural birth with physicians standing by only for emergencies who then felt pushed down the medical path. But according to her book, it can be done.
She told Press Democrat writer Meg McConahey, "If you could have a really good experience offered to you, why would you say no? If I won a cruise to the Caribbean, would I say no? That is why I want women who have to birth in the hospital,” she says, “to be able to have at least some if not all of the emotional, spiritual, empowering advantages of staying at home."
See also, Try the Middle Ground Between Natural and Hospital Birth.
