My response to concerns about leading women into disappointment over the lack of better options is "Consider the alternative." Right now, for lack of options that support and promote normal birth, women are ending up with preventable major surgery as well as other medical interventions with potential to do harm, and they, their babies, and future babies are ending up with avoidable physical and mental morbidity as a result. I believe that it is our moral and ethical responsibility as educators to give women the information they need to make informed decisions about their care, and we know--not as a matter of opinion but of fact established by the consensus of the research--what policies and practices promote optimal outcomes.

If you advertise as a class that specifically promotes normal birth, you can talk about these policies and practices, make explicit the sources on which what you are teaching is based, teach what questions to ask, and then it is up to your couples to decide what they want to do with what you have taught them. Here are some additional sources to the ones I listed in my earlier post:

Mother-Friendly Childbirth: Highlights of the Evidence

Informed Consent/Refusal

-- Henci