Residents of the New York City can have anything delivered to their door at any time. But there is one thing that is currently unavailable for delivery to those who live in this most can-do of metropolises. Women cannot legally give birth at home in the presence of a trained and experienced midwife.

This city of more than eight million people now lacks a single midwife legally permitted to help women have a baby in their own homes. The collapse of New York's legal home birth midwifery services has come as a result of the closure two weeks ago of one of the most progressive hospitals in the city, St Vincent's in Manhattan. When the bankrupt hospital shut its doors on April 30 the midwives suddenly found themselves without any backing or support.

There are 13 midwives who practise home births in New York, and under a system introduced in 1992 they are all obliged under state law to be approved by a hospital or obstetrician, on top of their professional training. St Vincent's was prepared to underwrite their services, but most other doctors and institutions are not, and they now find themselves without the paperwork they need to work lawfully.

— The Guardian, London