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.

There was a suggestion home births among primiparous women were associated with higher perinatal mortality than that for multiparous women, the researchers said.

“The absolute numbers of deaths were very small and therefore firm conclusions cannot be drawn about perinatal mortality outcomes,” the authors said, noting 1.1 deaths per 1000 home births compared to 0.8 per 1000 hospital births.