Very interesting thread...
Belgo, I think the answer is Sweden - read an article recently online and Sweden is the best place to give birth in the world and I think it was somewhere in Africa that was the worst.
I was very interested in a posting early in the thread, think it may have been Pupuce (sorry if someone else), who had shadowed midwives and found some pretty abominable attitudes -considering the responsibility these women have towards women and babies, I find it disgusting that these attitudes/working behaviours still exist in maternity units. I have read of plenty of midwives who have gone independent because they don't believe they can give women the support they need under the NHS system and protocols. I've also read numerous comments on midwifery talkboards where NHS midwives themselves are complaining about the problems they encounter in their jobs - unhelpful protocols, decisions made over their heads by those who have less experience of childbirth than they do, colleagues with unhelpful attitudes, and more problems caused than solved with modern interventions and approaches.
It seems that there are two approaches to birth - the midwifery model and the medical model. All too often the medical approach to birth is a 'baby factory' approach - get us in and out as quick as poss, with low regard for the natural labouring process and the time it takes (e.g. setting women time limits in each stage of labour, regardless of whether mother and baby are both well, happy and coping with labour).
Yes, interventions can be life saving. But most of the time they are just not necessary (and women who go into hospital are conned into believing that the interventions are in their best interests). And the fact is that these interventions are causing thousands of women to have terribly traumatic birth experiences that contribute hugely to PND and PTSD - but this fact is being overlooked in a) the pursuit for quick results, and b) the lack of need placed on recruiting and keeping decent, caring, midwives who truly understand what makes women feel supported and safe in labour, and have the experience to know when interventions are truly needed and when they are not.
What makes me really sad is that I no longer trust the care I will be given if I birth in hospital. Of course it's pot luck - there are some great NHS midwives and consultants out there too - but the horror stories I've heard about behind the scenes in maternity units, and about the 'care' that women have received in hospital are all too many.
Anyway, I agree with you all - women should have the choice of homebirth and hospital - I just wish that choosing hospital didn't have the potential to make such a profoundly negative impact on one of the most important events of a woman's life.