that by far the largest number of in labor women that come into the hospital in serious distress with major problems going wrong with the delivery are women that were trying to deliver outside of the hospital with a midwife and then when the delivery went bad were rushed to the hospital. When this happens the survival rate for the babies, and the mothers as well, is vastly lower than if they’d simply delivered at the hospital to begin with.

And that includes the women who have elected to use a midwife but are still delivering at the hospital. The survival rate for in distress mothers and babies goes up if they are at the hospital to begin with even if they use a midwife although it is still lower with a midwife than with an O.B.

All in all it is better to take advantage of the far better technology and skilled nurses and doctors at a hospital than any other situation.

And yes I know we’ll get testimonials of how someone and their wife used a midwife, birthing center, home birth, natural birth, whatever and it was fantastic. The truth is the survival rate for babies and mothers these days is so much better than it used to be regardless of the circumstance but it is still probably the most risky physical occurrence most women will ever go through in their entire lives and I love my wife far too much and loved my children far too much to have taken any unnecessary risk with their births.

My wife and I were firmly on the same page with that so there were no disputes and my wives births were always a bit risky as it was. She tended to deliver a few weeks early as well as very fast meaning that once she went into labor it was very quick to birth the babies. We are very grateful to the fine doctors, nurses, and hospitals she was able to use to deliver our children.