Laboring Under An Illusion: Mass Media Childbirth vs. The Real Thing

From the article in the Huffington Post:

Childbirth educator and documentary filmmaker Vicki Elson likes to say, aside from the typical hospital birth, there are essentially three kinds of births on television:

"One type is a pioneer woman or early Native American just pushing her baby out, no problem. Another type is an accidental birth on an airplane, in a tree, or during a hostage situation. The third type is a planned out-of-hospital birth. These look pretty flaky on TV, like what they call "extreme birth" with dolphins or in remote lagoons, although in reality planned home birth with good midwifery care is as safe as hospital birth."