Home Births Found Safer than Hospital Births for Some Low-Risk Women: Study

Giving birth at home might be a safe option for women who have had risk-free deliveries before, according to a new study.

Researchers said that there is a low risk of severe complications in home births for women who have had a risk-free pregnancy. They caution that home births are only an option for women who've given birth previously, and not for first-time moms.

Home-births are still uncommon in the U.S. According to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), about 0.6 percent or 25,000 births in the country are home-births. A planned home-birth carries two- to threefold higher risk of neonatal death than a planned birth at a hospital.

The Netherlands has the highest number of home births among developed countries. So, a team of researchers tested the outcomes of planned home-birth in low-risk women with that of planned hospital births.

The study was based on data obtained from 146,752 women of which 92,333 (63 percent) had a planned home birth and 54,419 (37 percent) a planned hospital birth, according to a news release.

Researchers found that in women who had never given birth before, the rate of a severe complication was about 2.3 per 1,000 deliveries, while it was about 3.1 per 1,000 births in a hospital.

The risk of complications dropped for subsequent births with women with planned home birth having a complicated delivery of 1 per 1,000 births, when compared with 2.3 per 1,000 for a planned hospital birth.

The researchers add that although the study has found home births to be safer, this shouldn't be a reason to be complacent.

"Low risk women in primary care with planned home birth at the onset of labour had a lower rate of severe acute maternal morbidity, postpartum haemorrhage, and manual removal of placenta than those with planned hospital birth. These differences were statistically significant for parous women (those who've had a birth before)," the authors concluded.

The study is published in the journal BMJ.                             

The American Association for Pediatrics recently set new guidelines for planned home births, which recommends parents and health care workers to ensure that home-delivered babies are getting health care on par with the standards recommended by the AAP. The association said that it still recommends that mothers give birth at hospitals or birthing centers.