Diana Mason's "Bad Birthing" (Editorial, February) was right on target. I graduated from nursing school in 1985 and had seen and read about some state-of-the-art practices and procedures in maternity care and some that had been around for centuries. After having given birth to two babies in two different cities, I realize that very little has changed. When I had my first daughter in the early 1990s, practices I had learned in nursing school were impossible to find in real life. At the time, my obstetrician told me that since this was my first baby I would need an episiotomy regardless of my thoughts about peritoneal massage or giving birth in a sitting or squatting position. I would also have an epidural because he didn't "have time" for a truly natural childbirth. I was discharged 12 hours after giving birth, as that was the insurance practice at the time. I lived in the mountains. It was snowing. My baby hadn't even passed her meconium. My husband took her back to the hospital in the snow the next day to have her cord clamp removed.

Clovis, CA