I'm a firm believer that women deliver their babies, everyone else spectates unless it's a CS Maybe when OB's stop saying they 'deliver babies' will be the day they realise there isn't a real function for them in normal birth!
I just don't believe that normal birth belongs in hospital, so this will always colour my idea about where Ob's belong in normal birth.
If an Ob's job in normal birth is to be 'hands off'...then what the hell are you wasting money on then? Doesn't this overload the system, when they are booked for women who don't need their skills? I'm pretty sure most Ob's don't study so that they can sit on their hands and be paid for it - and that's all Ob's need to do with a normal pregnancy. I don't care what definition they give themselves so that women believe they are absolutely necessary in something women were designed to do. You don't need an engineer to build a shed. Especially when your chances of having the shed fall over are increased by hiring the engineer, when a local handy-man will do the job beautifully.
If an Ob is caring for a pregnancy that won't need their specialist skills...a midwifery team would be cheaper, give more continuous, time-rich care and cost the community less.
And if you think my views are 'extreme', you haven't seen me being labelled 'moderate'!