Homebirths as safe as hospital for low-risk women
Also no differences in NICU admission, Apgar scores and need for resuscitation: review
Homebirths in a well-integrated midwife setting are as safe as hospital births in low-risk women, the largest such review shows.
The study found no difference in perinatal or neonatal death between low-risk women who intended to give birth at home and those who delivered their babies at hospital.
Canadian researchers looked at data from 14 studies comparing home and hospital births in Australia, New Zealand, England, Netherlands, Sweden, Japan, Canada and the US.
Outcomes from approximately 500,000 intended homebirths were compared to similar numbers of births intended to occur in hospital, according to the study in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine journal.
