Yes, you ARE safe birthing at home.....

[Pandana]

Just one more of countless studies that indicate, once again, that "nomal", low-risk births are no safer in hospitals than at home, and in fact result in fewer unnecessary interventions. (Since there are so many people out there who are in complete denial about the fact that routine hospitalization of healthy, low-risk birthing women is generally for the convenience and profit of the attending doctors than the actual improved outcome of the births.)

 And this one was even done in North America!

Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America

Kenneth C Johnson, senior epidemiologist¹, Betty-Anne Daviss, project manager²

¹ Surveillance and Risk Assessment Division, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control, Public Health Agency of Canada, PL 6702A, Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A OK9, ² Safe Motherhood/Newborn Initiative, International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Ottawa, Canada

Correspondence to: K C Johnson [e-mail]

Objective To evaluate the safety of home births in North America involving direct entry midwives, in jurisdictions where the practice is not well integrated into the healthcare system.

Design Prospective cohort study.

Setting All home births involving certified professional midwives across the United States (98% of cohort) and Canada, 2000.

Participants All 5418 women expecting to deliver in 2000 supported by midwives with a common certification and who planned to deliver at home when labour began.

Main outcome measures Intrapartum and neonatal mortality, perinatal transfer to hospital care, medical intervention during labour, breast feeding, and maternal satisfaction.

Results 655 (12.1%) women who intended to deliver at home when labour began were transferred to hospital. Medical intervention rates included epidural (4.7%), episiotomy (2.1%), forceps (1.0%), vacuum extraction (0.6%), and caesarean section (3.7%); these rates were substantially lower than for low risk US women having hospital births. The intrapartum and neonatal mortality among women considered at low risk at start of labour, excluding deaths concerning life threatening congenital anomalies, was 1.7 deaths per 1000 planned home births, similar to risks in other studies of low risk home and hospital births in North America. No mothers died. No discrepancies were found for perinatal outcomes independently validated.

Conclusions Planned home birth for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives was associated with lower rates of medical intervention but similar intrapartum and neonatal mortality to that of low risk hospital births in the United States.

[cali4niachef]

May. 19, 2008 at 9:18 AM post in in the pregnancy group :o) ha ha!

[marilyn623]

Jun. 28, 2008 at 5:31 AM

me and my sister were born at home with a midwife and we're totally fine, my mom had no complications or interventions. it is possible, but it just wasn't for me. but i didn't have an epidural :)

[proud_mommy_87]

Jan. 26, 2009 at 2:11 PM

Cool! I wish I could make my husband agree to a home birth. He refuses to let me try it.

[Mickey37]

May. 26, 2009 at 9:40 AM

Yes, but there's always that one unforseen event that can cost you the life of your baby... (like my friend who is still grieving two yrs later, after burying her baby girl)  Whoever reads this, consider how far you live from the hopsital for that unforseen complication please!!  If you're 5 min away, go for it, if you're 20 minutes away like my friend was , well, could you live with it if your infant died?  Okay, that's my 2 cents on it..

[Pandana]

Jun. 10, 2009 at 1:18 AM

Without knowing what cost your friend the life of her baby, I can't address that particular incident. And you can't make a very valid argument about "what ifs" unless you can give specific example. Give me a list of these unforeseen complications that cost babies their lives under the care of midwives, that would NOT have had a similar outcome unde the care of an OB, and I'll happily explain how it's circumstantial and not a flaw in or result of the method of care.

I'd have a hard time living with losing an infant regardless, I'm sure. But that's precisely why I favor a birthing method that has been shown to have more favorable outcomes for low-risk mothers. If a baby dies in a hospital, no one bothers asking "Would it have happened if they would have been at home with a midwife?" The answer is as likely to be "yes" as it is to be the other way around. Cultural bias leads people to question what they don't understand and are not comfortable with, while they overlook the blatant flaws in the accepted system even when tragedy strikes there.

(Original Poster)