I have built (love the past tense on that) a freestanding birth center, which is a place low-risk families can come to deliver babies out-of-hospital. It is understood by all parties that the minute things are looking unsafe momma is delivering in-hospital. In the United States, 98.64% of all babies are born in hospitals supervised by doctors. Midwives are witches to be burned at the stake. In our state, however, out-of-hospital births are more than 3%. In our county, out-of-hospital births are 6% and climbing. so much hippy-ish stuff. However, up here it's covered by insurance which means there's a higher percentage of normals. But yeah. There's a reason I know way too much about vaccine skepticism. We're allowed to run nitrous. We probably will. It's becoming a thing you can get at birth centers that you can't get at hospitals. (because you can't bill nearly as much as you can for an epidural) Around here it's 100% pure hippie. And that's why my wife ceased to be a software architect.What is it you run exactly?
In Sweden when parents are having a baby they (except in a few exceptions) have it in the hospital with a midwife and a doctor sometimes.
Now I've understood that the profession of midwifery has died out in the US, and that it is either epidural or hippy-ish stuff.
(I'm generalizing, but in Sweden it is very common with laughing gas for the pain during childbirth for example which (as I have understood) is very uncommon in the US so to me it seems like there is less of a middle way)
Classes in like, breathing techniques and such are usually offered by the state healthcare system, and I think are a bit more gender equal in terms of eh... A partners role in childbirth.
But having a baby in the US seems very different.