Proponents of midwifery point to The Netherlands, where midwifery is widespread and the national infant mortality rate has been lower than in the U.S. (10.6 vs. 16.1 per 1,000).

Rising costs and feminism bring back an ancient art

For most of the human species’ existence, the delivery of babies has been the exclusive prerogative of women. It was only at the turn of this century that U.S. physicians, most of them then male, decided to put the delivery business…