Safety or Money?
This article from Israel makes the point that underlying the medical establishment’s opposition to Home Birth may be more about its own financial interest. The differences between the Israeli medical system and the United States actually seems to magnify the similarities that do exist.
“Each year, about 150,000 babies are born in Israel. Hospitals vie over the mothers, tempting the women with posh delivery rooms, private midwives and even hotel suites. But the big money is not coming from the expectant mothers, it is coming from the state.
“The condition that makes the most money for hospitals is birth,” said Shlomi Friedman, who is promoting an amendment of the Birth Allowance law and fighting injustice in the National Insurance Institute’s treatment of mothers based on where they give birth. “They make NIS 8,000 per birth, which generally doesn’t involve complications.” And that is one reason the hospitals do not want Israeli women to give birth at home.”
~from Why are hospitals opposed to women giving birth at home?
