Birthing outside hospital ‘mostly a safe alternative’
But major Australian study flags concern over home birth for first-time mothers
Women with uncomplicated pregnancies are much more likely to have a normal labour and birth if they plan delivery at home or in a birth centre compared with hospital, a study of more than one million Australian births shows.
The risk of early neonatal death and intrapartum stillbirth was slightly higher among home-birth babies compared with other settings, but this was not statistically significant.
