Before the 1920’s, birth took place at home and was attended by doctors or midwives. In the 20’s, women flocked to hospitals for the ‘new’ modern methods of ‘painless’ childbirth by sedating mother. Not all doctors saw comatose childbirth as a positive step for Mom and Baby. Dr. Grantley Dick-Read of England saw the beauty in participatory childbirth. He noticed that women who had someone with them to explain events had significantly less pain. In the 1930’s he wrote “Birth Without Fear”. In the late 40’s, the Maternity Center of New York sponsored a grant to study the effect of his methods and to allow babies to ‘room in’. Fernande Lamaze, a French obstetrician, studied Russian techniques of conditioned response to reduce childbirth pain. The organization of the LaLeche League gave us the movement to promote breastfeeding.After that comes the concept of PREPARED CHILD BIRTH which gives Mom choices as to how to have her baby and along with her partner allows her to make these choices based on information not fear or ignorance. In the 60’s, Dr. Robert Bradley introduced the radical concept of fathers in the delivery room. Michael Odent brought the concept of water birth. 

Key words: Labor; Home deliveries; Hospital deliveries; Water birth.