Every year roughly 350,000 women die during childbirth, primarily from preventable causes. The developing world accounts for the majority of this number, and in many regions maternal mortality rates are currently increasing despite the advancements our world has seen in the past decades. Maternal mortality has become a global issue, with international initiatives being launched around the globe. However, this problem hits closer to home than many Americans may know. The United States has the highest GDP in the world, yet it has only the 48th lowest maternal mortality rate. In addition, the past decade has seen our national maternal mortality rate increase rather than decrease. Throughout my study I explore why the United States is not a safer nation for women to give birth in considering our status as a wealthy, developed nation. In doing so I expose the problems inherent in the American medical system and the roots of those problems in larger cultural and social issues. Beneath this is an examination of the history of midwifery in the United States and an argument for increased use of midwives by American mothers and increased collaboration between midwives and the American medical system.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the wives' perceptions of personal control over the process of childbirth were related to couples' choices and utilization of three birthing alternatives (home birth, unmedicated hospital birth, and medicated hospital birth). The wives' perceived control over the childbirth process was expected to vary inversely with the level of medical intervention in the birthing alternative chosen. The home birth mothers were expected to perceive themselves as having more control over childbirth than were the unmedicated hospital group mothers, and the unmedicated hospital group mothers more than the medicated hospital group mothers. The husbands' perception of their wives' perceived control in childbirth and their participation was also measured.

1 ABSTRACT The issue of births outside a medical facility is currently a controversial topic between specialists as well as in the public sector. While the specialists concur in refusing home births, the society is divided. There are voices that refuse home births but there are also plenty of people who support the right of mothers to give birth outside of a medical facility. Very sensitive topic is the legal and ethical aspects of the protection of unborn children and the issue of a safely conducted delivery. In the last decades, the life value of an unborn child has been seen as an ethical problem. The right to life is one of the fundamental human rights, which is enshrined in the constitutional system of the Czech Republic and also in the international human rights conventions. Because there are different opinions regarding this issue, it is necessary to establish a view that is widely accepted so that legal standards can be approved provided that the opinions of minorities are being respected. The main objective of this presented dissertation was to ascertain why are people losing confidence in a doctor's role during delivery and what is the reason for some of the mothers being unsatisfied with current institutional system of obstetrics. On the basis of these factual findings, which emerged during the...