The Canadian Medial Journal recently published a study that looked at 2889 planned home births attended by registered midwives, 4752 planned hospital births attended by the same midwives, and 5331 hospital births attended by physicians in British Columbia between 2000 and 2004. Not to my surprise, they found the risk of infant death following home births did not differ from that of hospital births. Not to mention, they found that women who had planned home births had significantly lower risk of obstetric interventions including electronic fetal monitoring, pitocin, epidurals, episiotomies, forceps, and cesarean sections. They also found these women had a significantly lower risk of adverse outcomes such as major perineal tearing, postpartum hemorrhage, and infections. Newborns born at home were less likely to require resuscitation at birth or oxygen beyond 24 hours. Homebirth may not be for everyone, but the belief that it is somehow less safe is innacurate, and fueled by hospital medical staff who are ignorant of homebirth. Ask any doctor if they’ve ever seen a homebirth.. the answer is more than likely, no.
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