Home births for high risk women result in high death rates

Home births for high risk women result in high death rates

In most industrialised countries only women at low risk of complications give birth at home. The outcomes can compare favourably with hospital births. In some places, however, there is a trendtowards including women at high risk. A population based studyby Bastian et al (p 384) looked at death rates of babies bornafter planned home births in Australia. The death rate was higherthan for comparable births nationally and much higher than homebirths in other countries $---$ largely due to predictably high riskbirths. The authors conclude that high risk home birth is inadvisable.

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Perinatal death associated with planned home birth in Australia: population based study: Hilda Bastian, Marc J N C Keirse, and Paul A L Lancaster
BMJ 1998 317: 384-388. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]