America has one of the heights rates

@Myah I'm a solid believer that unless you put your feet in the stirrups and your life on the line, you should not be in the decision. Just last year (or the year before), a woman in Wisconsin died giving birth to her second child.

This is fascinating. My niece by marriage went though having an early and traumatic birth experience. At one point we were hoping we weren't going to lose her and her daughter. She had pre-eclampsia and they kept trying to make her hold on to the pregnancy in hospital.

My grand niece was in NICU for months and her Mom had to recover from an emergency C-section. And PTSD from being treated like a "body" rather than a person.
She felt like a failure when she had difficulty producing breast milk right away! Which should be ridiculous in this day and age. There are other options. In fact they had to go to a supplement later because her daughter couldn't digest regular breast milk.

BTW my grand niece is in amazing shape for a baby born that prematurely. She's adorable and on track for her age. We are very fortunate.

My Mom labored for 36 hours before they figured out her pelvis wasn't large enough to pass the baby through. 1952 - they finally figured it out via X-Ray.

I think I'm more aware of the issues surrounding childbirth because of knowing what my Mom went through 4 times. (Essentially major surgery).
Later because my niece was put through the wringer.