Sherie, from the couple of years I've been part of an unassisted birth Yahoo group, I can definitely say that none of them are adrenaline junkies. They all honestly believe that it is the safest way to give birth. They do their research, in great depth, more than any of us do during our pregnancy. Many hire dopplers and conduct their own prenatal care. They have planned what to do if complicatons arise (e.g. eating their placenta for PPH). They usually have already decided in advance their own personal comfort level for when they would go to hospital.
I've been on the list for about 4 years now .. many many women have given birth unassisted during that time. Only 1 has ever needed emergency transfer to hospital, for a severe shoulder dystocia. One transferred a few hours later for PPH (but had already had a bite of her placenta and taken Shepherd's Purse herb, which stems bleeding). All the remaining births (and I'm talking upwards of 100) were completely incident free.

When I first heard of unassisted childbirth (known as UC), I thought it was completely insane. I was so intrigued that I started googling UC, out of some morbid curiousity. The more I read, the more I was amazed. Over a period of time I went from thinking it was completely insane, to thinking it wasn't so insane at all, to thinking that I would like to UC myself one day. Maybe I will, maybe I won't ... but I still think the idea of having an intimate birth experience with my baby and my husband is not so crazy