My sister's an MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) -- she sees the extreme of complicated, yes it's possible for the baby to get fecal matter into it's mouth, eyes etc. It's also possible for the fecal matter to cross the placenta and cause problems in the mother. One phone call post-call from my sister is like 100x more in detail what can go wrong in childbirth than what it has to say in "What to Expect When You're Expecting".
Scheduled C-Sections are going over the top for sure. However, there are a lot of things that can go wrong, and while I know that the midwife system is pretty established now in North America, it seems to be a new trend in Argentina and I'd be very careful who you go with.
Also, since the midwife idea is pretty recent here, I would definitely make sure to go for your ultrasounds etc. Assuming your pregnancy is normal with no complications, go for it. A good midwife should be able to coach you through without much tearing. An inexperienced one will not. And I'm not really sure what they carry in their kits here, if they'd be able to deal with any suturing etc. If they have oxygen etc... check it all out before you choose your midwife. 2 mins is still too far from the hospital if something goes wrong.
Were I going to go for midwife, I'd still go for midwife IN the hospital if that were an option. It is becoming so in North America, but it's far off here I believe.
EliA -- there is a reason why maternal deaths have dropped so much over the years, I do think that for normal healthy pregnancies there's too much medical intervention, but for any woman over 35, and I would even say over 30, a woman overweight, a woman with health issues, or a woman with multiple births, there is good reason to go to a hospital. When things go wrong during labour, they go wrong very quickly, and they can also go wrong even a few days after labour -- a woman can be hemorrhaging internally and a midwife is not be equipped to deal with it.
If any of you got on the phone with my sister you'd understand there is good reason for hospital births -- while most of her cases are women that have had extreme complications (diabetes, cancer, multiple organ failure -- remember she does see the extreme, not the normal deliveries) -- she does have cases go through her hands of perfectly healthy women that have something go wrong during labour and the results aren't good -- 4 of her recent cases invlolved perfectly healthy women that started out their labour with a midwife and ended up in the hospital, due to mistakes by the midwives.
I'm fine with people choosing midwives, just really check them out, full interview, ask for references and talk to previous clients to hear about their experiences, ask how many deliveries they have done, how often they are working, what are some of the more difficult situations they've been in, what do they carry in their kit, do they have a relationship with any particular hospital etc etc etc.
I have more confidence in the midwife system at home than here as well, simply because here they love their 30% caesarian section rates and I don't know how midwifes are getting proper training in a system that has gone sooooo far into medical approach to pregnancy and delivery.
Every woman should have the option to do what they like, just make sure you're making a really informed choice, especially in this country which really hasn't quite embraced the midwife option yet.
