Is an obsession with natural birth putting mothers and babies in danger?

This was the question posed yesterday, by reporter Jane Feinmann, in an article that is certainly worth reading.

I commented: "There is nothing wrong with supporting women to have a natural birth if this is their preference, but we should not put maternity policies in place that set out to encourage (and even force) natural birth for ALL women who have been labeled 'low risk'. It is impossible to be sure which pregnancies and births are low risk until the birth is over, and women should be fully informed of this. The fact is that no birth plan is inherently "safe" or risk-free, and it's about time we started measuring good practice based on the actual physical and psychological health outcomes of babies and women - and not a hospital or area's caesarean rate."