Home birth is as safe as hospital birth for women at low risk, according to the results of a Dutch cohort study of 529 688 women. But the authors say that a prospective study is needed (British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 2009;116:1-8).

“In our research, we studied more than half a million women in primary care and compared planned home births with planned hospital births,” said the lead researcher Simone Buitendijk, head of the child health programme at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research.

All low risk women, who gave birth between January 2000 and December 2006, were included. Just over 60% planned to give birth at home, 30.8% in hospital, and the rest …