I agree wholehearted with this. Yes, we ought to encourage women to have their babies at home, but also we need to ensure that the midwives themselves do not possess a fear of homebirth, are adequately trained and skilled to facilitate homebirth with an understanding that is it inappropriate to assume that one just transfer hospital practices into the home environment and also free of the conditioned reflex of just reaching the emergency buzzer because at a homebirth, the buck really stops with the midwife as far as emergencies go.

Which makes you then wonder that if we are to have midwives who trust the birthing process then do we have to look at what the selection criteria is for student midwives. Should we actually make a few courses pre-requisite to even applying for a student place? I would love to have been told I needed to do a course on physiology on childbirth and the historical role of midwives before In could have even applied for the course.