Midwives Franka Cadée, Erna Kerkhof, and Djanifa de Conceicao, maternity nurses Thea Groeneveld and Pien Jasper, and gynecologist Martine Hollander share their knowledge about the unique birth care in the Netherlands from their personal experience and perspective. Together, they paint a powerful yet vulnerable picture of a birthing culture that is under considerable pressure from a zeitgeist of medicalization, market forces, and modern society’s urge for control. This puts pregnant women’s freedom to choose to give birth safely at home at risk.
The value and uniqueness of our birth care, which most Dutch people take for granted, is evident from the poignant stories told by these professionals about the overwhelming and special nature of every birth, about the importance of a familiar face during childbirth—at home and in the hospital—about the function of pain and the consequences of trauma, poverty, and racism. The interviews and film are therefore also a reflection on our society and on core values such as trust in ourselves and our fellow human beings, autonomy, and freedom of choice.