I read a very informative and well balanced article on home birth in the New York Times yesterday called "Baby You're Home". According to the article, home births are increasing in New York City and among women who are far from the granola type. It was encouraging news to me.

I am a advocate of natural child birth and very eager to see significant health care reform in America under Obama. I hope to see more prevention, education, and less drugs and medical intervention. One way women can reduce their medical costs is by educating themselves about birth and opting out of unnecessary medical intervention during birth. As a healthy 35 year old woman my medical costs are almost $0 annually, but with the natural birth of my first baby in a hospital birthing room the cost to my insurance company for the very minimal services I used came to nearly $10,000. At home the cost would be reduced to a few hundred dollars if I hired a dula. A good source of information about birthing options in the Birth Network National, which I don't think the NY Times article mentioned. I was involved in the Cleveland chapter.