After X-Factor judge Danni Minogue unwittingly started a debate about home births, journalist Sali Hughes has jumped to defend women who believe there is no place like home.
Some of the right-wing press questioned the practice of home births after Danni was transferred from home to hospital mid-labour (and see WVoN story about article by doctors warning that women who have home births put their babies at risk).
Sali writing in The Guardian says: "It's only when you describe the safety procedures of planned home births that you realise the most common objection in fact relates to cost. "NHS money should be spent on the essentials, not lefty luxuries like home birth," said someone (a man) on Twitter last week."
At the end of the day, it is a question of choice, and allowing women to make informed choices. For some hospital is the preferred option, for others home - both should be funded and supported, and no-one should be judged.
