Hi everyone, in this class we are going to talk together about the different types of birth

settings available, the pros and cons of each, and why out of hospital birth, also sometimes

called community birth, is so controversial in the United States.

There are going to be five main topics that we're going to cover in this course.

We're going to talk about the overall climate concerning birth settings.

We're going to talk about hospital environments, the concept of risk, the concept of freestanding

birth centers and the research on their use, and the concept of homebirth and the research on homebirth.

Before we dig deeper into those topics,

I wanted to talk a little bit about the overall climate,

what is going on with birth settings,

particularly in the United States where I'm filming this.