but, i feel more and more strongly about having birth wards separate from hospitals and have most of them tended by midwives with doctors on call.

birth is not a disease and ought not to be treated as such. i feel babies and mothers are more at risk at hospitals than even in unattended home birth situations.

My preference? Clinics like the now defunct Elizabeth Seton Center (on 14th Street), with at least 20 birthing rooms, a doctor on staff and a facility/ability to perform outpatient surgery (ie: sewing up any vaginal tearing).

Hospitals should be only for the ill.