This doesn’t look good for pregnant women in New York:
Women can not legally give birth at home in the presence of a trained and experienced midwife… This city of more than 8 million people, with its reputation for being at the cutting-edge of modern urban living, now lacks a single midwife legally permitted to help women have a baby in their own homes.
I’ve written before about the importance of choice when it comes to giving birth (having accompanied my wife through the process relatively recently). I hope New York – like Great Britain – can get itself sorted.
arbitrary constant 
Worrying, that. My sister just gave birth at home, and it seems she had a much better experience there than in hospital with her first child. The medicalisation of childbirth is an interesting (and frightening) social development that has much in common with the medicalisation of disability.