Infants are
seen as active participants in the process and, like adults who can be called back to consciousness
after fainting by
stimulation and speaking of their names, respond quickly to maternal touch and voice.
The problem I
see is that direct entry midwives in the United States will often attend home births that do not fit these criteria; while insisting that home birth is at least as safe as hospital birth, many will attend twin births, breech births, births
after 41 weeks, births of women who have pre-existing or pregnancy - induced disease, births
after two or more previous caesarean sections, and births of women whose labor has been jump - started rather than begun spontaneously (whether by herbs, prolonged nipple
stimulation, the breaking of her water, or illicit use of medications).