Call the midwife! No matter how bad you’ve heard care can be, ‘freebirthing’ is not the answer | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

NHS midwifery is in crisis and unmedicated birth in vogue, but doing it at home without medical support is simply dangerous

Could you do a poo like this?" There's a sentence I will never forget. I was in my second trimester and doing a hypnobirthing course. The question is supposed to be a metaphor for childbirth: being surrounded by doctors with clipboards would apparently make you too tense to poo, or give birth. To which my rejoinder was, Well, surely it depends how much you need to go."

Other than National Childbirth Trust (NCT) classes - in which the instructor told us that the ideal birth is at home, without pain relief (not their official line, they say) - this was my first glimpse of the anti-medical approach to childbirth. I thought about it again when I read about the concerning rise of freebirthing" - when a woman gives birth at home without assistance from a doctor or midwife - and the fact that the Royal College of Midwives has stated that midwives are understandably concerned about women giving birth at home without assistance, as it brings with it increased risks to both the mother and baby".