The hospital where I delivered the first time was supposedly cool about using different laboring and birthing techniques, but they were also super-fast to get me on an IV and that severely limited my mobility and hence my ability to use most of the alternative methods.
Re: the two midwives, as I commented on the phone today, at least one commentator says that Shifra and Puah were the head midwives, not the only midwives. OTOH, if they were the only two (which I don't believe), it would make sense that the Hebrew women could deliver before they got there, since the two of them would be incredibly overextended!
Oh, and there's a popular midrash claiming that Shifra and Puah were actually Yocheved and Miriam.
Re: the two midwives, as I commented on the phone today, at least one commentator says that Shifra and Puah were the head midwives, not the only midwives. OTOH, if they were the only two (which I don't believe), it would make sense that the Hebrew women could deliver before they got there, since the two of them would be incredibly overextended!
Oh, and there's a popular midrash claiming that Shifra and Puah were actually Yocheved and Miriam.