Some very unfortunate situations shared above - I would have been both terrified and ropeable if this had happened to me and my wife but we were very lucky to be able to birth in a highly regarded private hospital specifically geared for birth. Unfortunately not everyone can afford Private health insurance (I can barely afford it myself). I would however hope that while they do happen that they are not typical of a hospital visit. (in the same regard it could be possible for a HB plan to go out the window if you had a fast labour that went down before the MW could be make it there and/or the pool could be filled etc. I would think that this would be similiarly scary especially if there was a complication but I would expect this to be a very rare occurence)

I think, from what I reading here is that the push to educate about birth and the many options and possible scenarios can be lost on some people. I think it is safe to say that everyone who posted here are a part of the group that did do the research and were educated by the time they gave birth. For me - this thread has re-inforced the need to research and learn about birth and to think about what my defnition of a "good outcome" is.