A homebirth is childbirth in a non-clinical setting. It is a delivery that takes place in a residence rather than in a hospital or a birth center.
In the United States, over 98% of all births take place in the hospital. Only about 1% of deliveries are home births, though about 1/3 of these are homebirths without an attendant, usually family, ambulance, or taxi driver. So much less than 1% of births in the US are planned homebirths.
A planned home birth is usually attended by a certified nurse midwife (about 1/3 of the time) or a "direct-entry" midwife (2/3 of the time) who was not trained as a nurse, such as a CPM or in some US states a licensed midwife.
A recent study by Dr. Grunebaum showed that there is a nearly 4-time neonatal mortality risk with homebirths.
Another study by Dr. Grunebaum showed that home births are associated with over 10-times the risk of Apgar scores of zero (virtually dead babies) when compared to doctor led hospital births and nearly 18-times the risk of midwife hospital births.
Having a baby is mostly about safety, both for baby and mother. Interventions such as cesarean sections can be life saving especially when minutes can make a difference. Cesarean sections are not available in homebirths.
A little over 100 years ago 10 in 100 children died before the age of 1 years of age as compared to today with less than 1 in 100 children dying. Similarly, about 60-90 per 10,000 women died of childbirth related complications as compared to less than 1 in 10,000 today, a more than 99% decrease!
- The risk of dying from a gun in the US is 1 in 24,000, while the risk of a baby dying from a homebirth is 24-times of that risk, over 24 in 24,000 homebirths.
- 1 in 750 babies die during homebirths while 1 in 24,000 are killed by guns and 1 in 57,000 died driving a Cobra car which was recalled. What is more dangerous?
When comparing interventions between hospital and home births, it is important to compare data of uniformally published data on worse neonatal outcomes of the baby during home births. There is unquestionably a higher risk of low Apgar scores and more neonatal deaths and injuries to the baby with a home birth.
Women contemplating a home birth should be made aware that the newborn is over 3 times more likely to die during a home birth, and the risk increases further if this is a woman's first baby or if the pregnancy is over 41 weeks.
- Homebirth is like NOT putting your child's seatbelt on
- Homebirth - A Guide Of The Literature
- Neonatal Mortality and Homebirth
- Apgar score of zero and homebirths
- Doula Dani: Homebirths in the US
- Dead twin during homebirth
- Homebirth on the Prairie
- Dr.Grunebaum on homebirths
- The ACNM says that lay midwives are not really midwives
- A baby died during homebirth
- Evelyn Muhlhan order to suspend license
- Midwife convicted in Orgeon for baby's death after homebirth due to sepsis
- A wonderful blog about homebirth
- The Homebirth of Henry and Abel - Orgeon Midwife
- Increase in Apgar score of zero and neurologic dysfunction in home births
- Irish court says 'no' to homebirth after cesarean
- More low Apgar scores with home births
- Tripling of neonatal mortality with homebirth
- Seven facts about homebirths
- Home birth informed consent
- Failure to rescue the baby during a home birth
- Birthzillas and Home births
- Many reasons to have the baby in a hospital
- Coroner says these 3 babies could have been saved
- First time mothers warned about home births