Congratulations on your latest edition Catherine.

I feel really sad and defensive when I read your post. It is incredibly outdated and against all available data that women "should" birth their babies on their backs.

Birth is about primal instincts - for some women that will mean they want to be on their backs - but frankly those women are in the very small minority.

When women are given the space to access their inner wisdom and freedom to explore their instincts and to follow them... They will crouch, squat, swivel their hips, stand, stomp, fall to the all fours position etc etc.

Interfering with these primal instincts interrupts the energy of birth.

As a woman that advocates for women's birthing choices I would have to say... Change obs. He might be a great obstetrician in some eyes. However the fact alone that he cannot meet a birthing Goddess on the ground or in the shower, or on the fit ball tells me that his skills in natural childbirth are not good. (I know that is direct... )
This is where some obstetricians fall short. They are specialists in obstetric medicine and surgery... Not necessarily (but by no means not always ) in the natural process of birth.