In the 1950s the medical establishment began a coordinated campaign to discredit midwives, who were still the major health-care providers to rural black women in the South. Yet years after the medical establishment won the battle, statistics showed that in many instances the live birth rate was higher among the black midwives than under the white, professionally trained doctors who replaced them. Why do you think this was so?
In most cases, do you think it is better for a woman to be attended by a midwife in her own home, or to give birth in a hospital? Should all women have the choice?