Just under a year ago, our GP struck us off. The reasons given were the usual ones about the breakdown of patient doctor relationship.

The real reasons were that a) we insisted on a home birth for our son, which ended up being a drug free, tear free, midwife delivery at home; b) we were daring enough to ask for information about the vaccination programme before making a decision c) my wife refused a vaginal examination at her postnatal check up.

When we first went to see Dr Smith (not his real name), he told us that home birth would be stupid at my wife's age (she was 35 at the time). We wrote several very clear letters to him, as did our independent midwives.

One day when we were at home, our doctor made an uninvited, unsolicited house call. He wanted to deliver the baby himself, he said, and when we summoned up the courage to tell him that we didn't want that, he seemed hurt and surprised.

All went well and he visited us after the birth. He checked my son and told my wife, much to her surprise, that she would be feeling quite depressed soon. This amazed us both, and for weaker minded individuals it could have been rather auto suggestive.

At our post natal visit Dr Smith mentioned an internal examination, which my wife didn't want. He then acted as if we'd declared we didn't want any examination at all. We discovered later that there are many aspects of the postnatal check up and many doctors don't insist on an internal.

We asked for information about vaccination. At this point, he decided we had no need of his kind of practice.

When we quickly found another GP, at our first appointment, we were given a 40 minute grilling and telling off about the dangers of home birth. Finally, we found one who is sympathetic to our wishes. Name withheld.