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Childbirth at home doubles risk of infant death, study says

Posted: July 2, 2010

A US study of 350,000 home births and 200,000 hospital deliveries suggests that infants born at home have twice the mortality rate of those born in hospitals in the US and Europe.

Although the risk of death is still low at .02%, researchers believe that the risks of giving birth at home have been previously underestimated due to inaccurately recorded data:

The researchers argued that the safety of home births may have previously been overplayed by the fact that when there are complications and a woman is rushed to hospital, any adverse outcome is recorded as a hospital birth.

Home deliveries did prove to have a more rapid recovery time for mothers, fewer cases of hemmoraging, fewer cases of tearing and a reduced rate of infections. But researchers do say the benefits come with the added risk:

“Women choosing home birth, particularly low-risk individuals who had given birth previously, are in large part successful in achieving their goal of delivering with less morbidity and medical intervention than experienced during hospital-based childbirth,” said lead author Dr Joseph Wax from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Maine Medical Center.

“Of significant concern, these apparent benefits are associated with a doubling of the neonatal mortality rate overall and a near tripling among infants born without congenital defects.”

Among the infants in the study that died during a home birth, the most common factors involved were respiratory troubles and failed attempts at resuscitation.

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Category: Health
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Posted: July 2, 2010
Kim LaCapria

By Kim LaCapria









Comments


One Archived Response to “ Childbirth at home doubles risk of infant death, study says ”

  1. josephine
    Jul 8, 2010

    Fact: The Wax study has major flaws and does not reach accurate conclusions. Extremely large studies have consistently shown there is no real difference in neonatal mortality between hospital births and planned homebirths.

    Fact: The Wax study does not give any information at all about different types of midwives or higher neonatal rates associated with unlicensed midwives compared to licensed/regulated midwives. There is no such information! This report is only a few days old, but already some are claiming quite strongly that it proves this distinction. (I suspect they have not actually read it, but are basing their reaction on news briefs.)

    Fact: The births in this report are all—with the exception of the study from Washington State—conducted by trained, regulated licensed midwives or physicians. There is a flaw in the meta-analysis, which contradicts the individual conclusions of many large studies showing that these births have similar risk of neonatal death as hospital births. The flaw is probably the result of using old and small studies, and of incorrectly including at least one large, but flawed, retrospective study.

    Fact: This report may fuel an attack on all types of midwives, everywhere! No matter the credential, or lack of it, it is midwives who primarily conduct homebirths. An acceptance of the incorrect conclusion in this report will hurt them all! Those who are already drawing battle lines to claim that their particular credentials are better than another’s, need to look carefully at this report. This report claims (erroneously) that homebirth is dangerous and therefore any homebirth practitioner is dangerous. It doesn’t matter about the initials behind her name.

    Fact: The best way to fight incorrect information is to counter it with the truth. Don’t buy into fear. Look for the truth!