Personally, in my own family–though we’ve known plenty of happy homebirthers–we’ve preferred hospitals. I mention that upfront so that no one will think I’m trying to push any specific option for women. I’m just interested in what it reveals about the cost of liability–costs to patients as much as to doctors.

When Amy Cunningham blogged about Ricki Lake’s new documentary about childbirth, a mother and yoga instructor commented about it and Amy reblogged the comment. You can read it all at her post, but she mentioned something about medical liability which is should be of interest to us all:

In my state lay midwives are legal but must be “backed up” by a medical doctor. Of course, there isn’t a single medical doctor in my community willing to be a backup because of legal and liability issues (ie., they . . . risk malpractice lawsuits). Therefore most births technically are “illegal” and parents risk intervention at all different stages.

Of course, the blogosphere is not always accurate, but this makes a great deal of sense. It also makes me wonder if there has been a decline in providing free services due to the worsening state of medical liability.

It is one thing to volunteer to help and give away your time and expertise for free. It is completely different to volunteer not only to help and give away your time and expertise for free, but also to incur the burden of the possibility of a lawsuit.

Have you or anyone you know ever decided against volunteering due to the pressure of added medical liability?