This sounds dangerous

The small but troubling faction of "do-it-yourself" childbirth advocates who encourage unassisted childbirth are courting danger, warns the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.

Well, sure, you'd expect any group of OB/GYNs to object to a practice that, if it spread, would put them out of work. Oh, what's that?

"Freebirthing" is the practice of giving birth at home, without the help of obstetricians, nurses or even midwives or doulas.

Okay, that's some crazy shit right there. I don't think any society has ever made a practice of just leaving women in a room alone. At least, not for long and not without a lot of collateral damage. But even better is the alleged justification:

They also note that "freebirth" allows a woman to listen to her own body's signals rather than coaching from an outsider.

Now, admittedly I'm a man, so my opinions or knowledge of pregnancy need to be pretty heavily discounted. But my understanding is that when crunch time comes, the only thing a woman's body is saying to her is "here, I'm going to make you feel more pain than you've felt in your life up to this point, and it's going to feel like an eternity. How does that work for you?" Frankly, I'd prefer the coaching.

And now I've got the image of a pregnant woman being told to go one more round with Apollo Creed in my head...