I found this British Blogging Doctor linked from Instapundit yesterday.
He has some interesting insights into the NHS in England and his post on childbirth further settled things in my own mind that socializing here in America would be very very bad for birthing moms.
Here is the link to his post: Go here
He Said:

A horrifying report from today’s Independent on Sunday.

Record numbers of women are being harmed or dying as a direct result of childbirth in what doctors are labelling as “a crisis” in maternity care.

391 women have died in childbirth in the last three years, a 21% increase on the previous comparable period.

The UK now has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Europe, with 13 deaths per 100,000.

17676 women have suffered physical harm on labour wards in the last three years – harm such as perforated bowels, necessitation temporary colostomies.

Maternity medical negligence claims are costing the NHS £1 billion a year

It is all due to lack of resources and, as Dr Crippen never tires of saying, dumbing down.

Midwives are doing work for which they are not trained; work that should be done by doctors.

Health care assistants are doing work for which they are not trained; work that should be done my midwives.

How is the government dealing with this?

The Independent quotes the Department of Health as saying:

“Giving birth is safer than it has ever been.”

Now I know one of the big issues for the 2008 election is going to be Socialized Medicine.
Here is a link to a poll by CBS news claiming that most Americans want to socialize our health care system.
Go Here.
What will this mean for birthing mothers?
Go read the report from the UK newspaper.
Quote:

“Experts are warning that 10,000 more midwives are needed to prevent a further rise in blunders and deaths. They say there is also a shortage of trained obstetricians, desperately needed now that doctors perform more Caesarean sections, largely because of staff shortages. More than one in five births in Britain are by Caesarean section, a figure significantly higher than World Health Organisation guideline of 15 per cent.”

What do I think are the long term answers for this mess?
Privatize the whole shootin match, allow parents to decide with whom, where, how, and in what manner they will give birth, and let the MARKET sort things out. It always will, every time….Prices will become more reasonable, the medical industry will have to be accountable to and respond to consumer demands, and mothers and babies will be healthier and given a higher measure of protection when the staff at the hospital is directly accountable to parents.
Do I believe this will happen?
Nope. American Health Care is on a slow moving train wreck heading for a crash that will result in the deaths and maiming of many innocent women and children.
Our C-section rate recently hit one out of three. The American Press Yawned.
When the birth stats for 2006 are fully publicized I believe it will have jumped another couple of points, perhaps to 35%.
The UK situation is an interesting study because they have some goofy laws that make it possible for a father to be prosecuted if he delivers his own child, yet they support midwife assisted home birth, they even pay for it if you have not been risked out of it by an OB.
Go here for an analysis of home birth laws in the UK.
Telling point for me as a promoter of Unassisted Birth:
Quote:

“Birth Without Midwives

“It is perfectly legal to give birth alone, unassisted – ie with no midwife in attendance – whether this was accidental, or deliberate. Some women choose this option because they cannot get the sort of non-intrusive, supportive midwifery care they require.

For others, giving birth unassisted is a positive choice which they believe to be best for them and their babies. I do not wish to either promote or condemn planned unassisted birth; the aim of this section is simply to inform. For links to sites advocating unassisted birth, see [6] below.

It is illegal for anyone other than a UK registered midwife or doctor to ‘attend’ a woman in labour except in an emergency. This means that if it can be proved that the birth partner intended to act as a midwife, he (or she, but ‘he’ is used here for simplicity) may be prosecuted. The birth partner may even be liable to prosecution if he was present at the baby’s birth, even if he was in another room at the time. Some have suggested that ‘present’ means in the same room, but it could be interpreted as ‘nearby’.

In the one case in recent years where such a prosecution has been successful, the baby’s father, Brian Radley, had stated explicitly to the health authorities that he intended to act as a midwife for the birth, and this statement of intent helped the prosecution’s case. His wife was told by the health authority that, if she called a midwife, the midwife would arrive and immediately call an ambulance to take her to hospital.

Mrs Radley had vowed never to enter the hospital again after she received poor treatment during there when having her first baby. Given the health authority’s unsupportive attitude, the Radleys felt that conducting the birth themselves was their best option. Brian Radley was fined £500, but his fine was paid by a doctor who was appalled at the way this couple had been treated by the medical profession. [7]”

Bless the doctor who paid the fine, but this case illustrates the increasing dilemna for us home birthing parents. On top of all the social stigma that exists when one wades out into the tempestuous sea of UC Birthing Politics, we have medical systems that are so nanny-statish in their own minds that they cannot abide parents giving birth in the sanctity of their own homes, yet even with the complete understanding and acceptance that hospital birth is demeaning at best and damaging and deadly at worst, parents are still expected to bow down to the birth machine and do whatever it dictates.
I believe the answer to this dilemna is FREEDOM. Sure, I’ll admit that some babies and mothers will die or be damaged during an Unassisted Birth. But it is the parents who have to live with the long term consequences of that choice, not doctors and not hospitals. If parents decide that the home birth feels comfortable for them, they should be supported, not prosecuted.
Railroading pregnant women into a situation where they are forced to use a variety of unproven birth practices which can be deadly to the mother and traumetizing for the baby, – and just off the top of my head I’m thinking of the drug Cytotec, (which is being used all over the world without patient informed consent to induce labor), restriction of movement, restriction of fluids and foods during labor, giving birth in the supine position, (which one doctor in Brazil claimed that other than being suspended by her toes while giving birth, was the absolute worst position for a woman to give birth), forcing women to submit to these practices is criminal.
Where is it all headed?
Lots and lots of dead mothers and babies, and young women choosing to have a career instead of happily welcoming a large family of children into their homes.
We continue to have pundits who are wringing their hands because young women are not choosing to give birth to any children. With the birthing machine currently calling most of the shots worldwide, I am not surprised that these women are forgoing the amazing of experience of being a mother.

Fertility Map found at Wiki
Jenny Hatch