[Lucia_mommy]

@HappyHippy the Postpartum Doula sounds a lot like what we have here, only it's standard! It's great, you can really enjoy the first days in bed with baby knowing everything else is taken care of. I look forward to it!

[HopeTea]

Really surprised to hear some of you say women in your area seem LESS educated about pregnancy/birth than the girls on 16 and Pregnant!

[STL_Beth]

First of all, I have to say that the shows you are talking about in America are very biased towards the medical side. They like to show the "dramatic, medicalized" births. So their stats are probably a little higher than what America really is, but it is accurate to say places like Holland are way more pro NCB than America. I think it's like a PP said, it's just "normal" to have an epidural now.

[HopeTea]

Just something I wanted to add: I've had a few Japanese friends whose husbands were transferred to America, so the families moved over there for a time. Two of them ended up having a baby there, and they both got epidurals even though in Japan NCB is the norm. When I asked why, they really didn't have any reason aside from "they asked me if I wanted it". I got the impression they did it because they wanted to do what was "normal" in America.