[pumaontheprowl]

2.8 million people die during childbirth every year. It's absolutely a medical condition. And you should absolutely have a doctor there.

[kkwteh]

Where did you get the 2.8 million figure? Wikipedia says "an estimated 303,000 women killed each year in childbirth and pregnancy worldwide", which isn't the same.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_death

[dzhiurgis]

I'd guess the stats favour non-hospital births because they are only done when deemed safe beforehand. No midwife will let you do it outside hospital if they spotted anything wrong.

[economusty]

Thanks for saying this, most do it in the hospital because if something goes wrong we want to have the best chance of saving mom and child.

[jac241]

It's wild that on a site that educated people use that you're seeing people advocate for homebirths. I'm guessing that next to nobody on hacker news have seen a delivery go south and need an emergency C-section. If you're at home, the ambulance is going to be way too late to prevent serious harm to the baby (hypoxic brain injury) or the mom (hemorrhage, hypotensive shock). There's a reason why OB/Gyns don't have their babies at home - it's because they have seen it go wrong.