Maternity care -- who provides it, what it costs, how the baby gets out -- is much bigger than the so-called Mommy Wars. It's a question of the common good, and to get there, we need, as HuffPost blogger Randi Hutter Epstein recently noted, to go beyond the old "home vs. hospital" debates.

It should be a priority for all who work with pregnant folks and new parents to try to get their tone right as often as possible. To slow down, remember that that new dad holding his baby is far more likely to be riddled with insecurity and self-doubt than he is to actually drop the baby.

My doctor suggested a number of medical interventions prior to and during my labor, including induction and continuous electronic fetal monitoring. Had they been necessary?