Mayaness, that's exactly what I meant, they should have had a professional on the other side of the argument, too. I found that the argument could have been perceived as "hospital birth is safe but clinical while HB is very dangerous, but more enjoyable" which plays quite nicely into the hands of those who say that HB is a selfish desire of some women who put their own "experience" above their baby's safety. Many people believe what the authority figure says without questioning it, unfortunately. Which is how we got to this state of affairs in the first place.

And although I can't seem to find those stats, I was under the impression that even in regards to maternal and infant mortality there were quite a few countries (like Japan) that had better stats than Australia.

Sasa