Others on social media were outraged at what they saw as a breaching of the woman's human rights, with posts along the lines "it's her choice, how dare they?"
Others bemoaned the "PC police" and compared it with Maccas refusing to give fat people a Big Mac.
Yet this analogy doesn't work - not least because it is commercially highly unlikely because it would rule out a number of their customers in New Zealand.
But really because this is not just about the mother, but about her baby. Unfortunately unborn babies have few rights and, therefore, are left to the mercy of their mothers who, one hopes, would always act in their best interests.
We do a lot of things as mothers that others might judge as wrong, but on this issue I am with one poster who sums up like this: "the woman is a sook. Have a grape juice and get over it".
Because it just seems so selfish to risk something so precious for the sake of one's own pleasure.
Is a mother's choice over place of birth equally prone to self-centred behaviour?
I was guilty of this with my first child. Just having landed in the country my eyes lighted on the wooden floors and linen hammocks in Parnell Birthcare. I decided that was where I was going to bring my firstborn in to the world, in a haze of lavender with music videos playing in the background on wide screen televisions.
When labour began, it wasn't an epiphany of concern for my baby that drove me at top speed to Auckland Hospital, but fear of pain. It was 2003, in the midst of Rugby World Cup, but there were no televisions. The bathrooms were down a corridor. It wasn't Parnell. But I couldn't have cared less. A medical student, Elizabeth, wearily stuck her head round the door asking if she could witness the birth.
She had had "nos" all day, she said. I jumped at her offer - she was my only chance of a companion. She turned out to be my saviour, noticing the baby's distress and calling the obstetrician who did an emergency delivery with only minutes to get the baby out. Elizabeth brought flowers the next day ... lilies, and that was the happy beginning of my Lily.
If I hadn't been in hospital she might not be here today. Or here but not here, as is the case of 9-year-old Charley Hooper who was born in a Morrinsville birthing unit, a birth that left her brain damaged and tetraplegic.
Since then mum Jenn Hooper has campaigned tirelessly for more informed birthing options for women through parent support and lobby group Action to Improve Maternity.
One of the families Hooper represented was the family of Casey Nathan and her baby Kymani. Nathan died hours after giving birth at Birthcare Huntly and her baby died two days later. In January, the coroner ruled these might have been prevented had the mother received the care of an obstetrician in hospital.
Birthing choices for women are an emotive issue. I have heard many a claim that birthing is a natural process and should not be medicalised. For me, having a baby in a non-clinical setting is akin to having your teeth out in a beauty salon. Yet I respect the desire of women to have a birth with little or no medical intervention if they can. But for me it makes sense to try this in a hospital.
Last year, Tauranga's first birthing centre opened in Bethlehem. This week, Ruth Keber reported that one in four women who have laboured there since its opening have transferred to Tauranga Hospital. Some of the reasons given for transfer are conditions that are potentially life-threatening to a mother, such as postpartum haemorrhage - one of the main causes of maternal death worldwide, or to the baby, such as respiratory or foetal distress.
On the one hand you could argue that these conditions could occur in hospital too. And that three in four women birthed well in the birthing centre. But the fact remains that one in four needed a hospital but were not in hospital and even a transfer down the road can mean a delay that you wouldn't get in hospital.
Private birthing centres such as Bethlehem are private businesses. The figures published this week were obtained from the Bay of Plenty District Health Board under the Official Information Act. When the Bay of Plenty Times asked about the transfer rates, Bethlehem Birthing Centre manager Chloe Wright did not comment. But, as Hooper pointed out, for women to make informed choices about birth, it should not be that hard for them to get data that helps them weigh up the pros and cons.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommends standalone birthing units should be located where possible within or immediately adjacent to a 24-hour hospital facility. In 2013, I interviewed Dr Richard Speed, senior obstetrician at the Bay of Plenty District Health Board (DHB), who said he would only be happy for his own daughter to labour within reach of the hospital and would prefer any standalone birthing unit to be in hospital grounds.
Ninety-five per cent of the 650 families Hooper represented involved mothers who did not choose to give birth at a hospital.
Whether you are having a drink while pregnant, or dreaming of a birth in a double bed with an ensuite bathroom, consequences of choices we may make for our own lifestyle reasons may have devastating consequences for that little person growing inside who surely deserves the best beginning you can possibly give.