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.
North enough for Snohomish County taxes and regulations, south enough that people in Ballard love how close we are. We are 1.0 miles north of the county line and 1.6 miles from the nearest off-ramp. And the nearest bus station is literally our parking lot.