This makes me very sad. Ireland is a land of mothers and used to be a land of homebirths. Such incredible misogyny abroad in that beautiful country - and how ironic that the "Active Management of Labour" would be developed in a country with such an amazing birthing heritage.

The beautiful Irish midwife who attended me has disappeared. Even in 1998 when I had my first baby in Ireland, homebirth midwives were being witch-hunted.

Isn't it amazing, that three things known to greatly increase comfort and confidence for women giving birth, are held in such suspicion and disregard by those who promote a highly obstetric approach??? - Homebirth, waterbirth, doulas ....

It's extremely important to thoroughly discredit all three and make sure that women are too spooked and scared to take the supposed 'risks' - because otherwise, women's own common sense and positive word-of-mouth reports are likely to see these options become hugely popular.

Goodness. We can't have that.