“Women Deserve Data, Not Dogma.” This slogan stopped me in my tracks. In just five words, it captures everything that evidence-based medicine should stand for - and everything that’s gone wrong in how birth choices are presented to American women today. From social media midwives promoting “undisturbed birth” to documentaries framing hospitals as the enemy of natural childbirth, pregnant women are being sold a fantasy that ignores inconvenient data. The home birth movement has learned that empowerment language sells, and that “trusting birth” sounds better than trusting statistics. But feelings aren’t facts, and your birth experience isn’t more important than your baby’s life. Here are the facts - not fads - that every woman considering home birth deserves to hear.
