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Expert Q&A

	By Kelly Camden Certified Doula

Is homebirth safe?

The following statistics illustrate the success of homebirth. These numbers were compiled from a study of the North American Registry of Midwives and published in the British Medical Journal, June 2005.

• Studies on homebirth show that "Compared with the relatively low risk hospital group, intended homebirths were associated with lower rates of electronic fetal monitoring (9.6 percent versus 84.3 percent), episiotomy (2.1 percent versus 33.0 percent), caesarean section (3.7 percent versus 19.0 percent) and vacuum extraction (0.6 percent versus 5.5 percent)."

• The caesarean rate for intended homebirths was 8.3 percent among primiparous women (first-time mothers) and 1.6 percent among multiparous women"(those who have previously given birth.

• The study compared medical intervention rates for the planned homebirths with data from birth certificates for all 3,360,868 singleton, vertex (head-down) births at 37 weeks or more gestation in the United States in 2000, as reported by the National Center for Health Statistics. It was found that "655 (12.1 percent) women who intended to deliver at home when labor began were transferred to hospital. Medical intervention rates included epidural (4.7 percent), episiotomy (2.1 percent), forceps (1.0 percent), vacuum extraction (0.6 percent) and caesarean section (3.7 percent); these rates were substantially lower than for low risk U.S. women having hospital births."

• "Planned homebirths with certified professional midwives in the United States had similar rates of intrapartum and neonatal mortality to those of low risk hospital births."

• "Medical intervention rates for planned homebirths were lower than for planned low risk hospital births," even when a transfer to the hospital occurred.

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