Midwives and GPs supervised these deliveries, but with ever-increasing calls on their time, GPs have largely handed the care over to midwives. The crucial point is that the obstetrician is not involved unless there is an explicit need.

Dr Porter is also a consultant in obstetrics care to the World Health Organisation, championing the liberating approach to childbirth and maternity care in Russia, Eastern Europe and former Soviet Republics, particularly Central Asia.

Dr Porter says: 'The key phrase in our philosophy is "empowerment for women". Curiously, to achieve it we need to liberate the professionals, also. The idea is to get away from centrally imposed solutions so that people can have genuine choices. This clearly applies particularly to more authoritarian societies than ours, but we delude ourselves if we think we are totally free of professional diktat.

In a notoriously conservative profession, both at home and abroad, it can sometimes be difficult espousing a very liberal approach towards maternity care. At Bath we hope that, by our example, we can encourage more and more people to be open-minded about their approaches to this most important moment in a woman’s life.'