Great expectations. Part 2, Birthrights and bleepers.

Three midwives talk about their experience in helping mothers with home-births. Tracey Hodgkinson talks about working in Hackney in East London where she had attended a mother living in very unhygienic conditions prior to giving birth. Hazel Monroe cover a large area in the west coast of Scotland where she gives ante-natal and neo-natal care along with birthcare. The programme contrasts the charges for home births in various parts of the UK. Alice Cole, an Australin midwife, talks about how midwives' work was gradually taken away by medical professionals such as surgeons and obstetricians, and how hospitals became seen as safer places for the mother and baby. Midwives have not been allowed to use forcepts since the turn of the century.