Isn't it amazing what a few government policies do the the perception of things! In NZ there is much more public acceptance to HB. The worst I ever got was the comment of "I couldn't do that myself, what if something went wrong" which wasn't really anything negative about my choice. Perhaps it would be a different attitude in the cities though - where we were it was somewhere around 20-30% HB, then another 20-30% at the birth center (actually no more resources than a home birth lol) and then the rest went out of town to a hospital. I was the first in the area to get a birth pool sent up, I know of about 4 ladies that used it after me and eventually they had to get a second one up because the home water births were getting so common! I guess it helps that it is free here - we actually have a choice without any financial barriers.