Within weeks of each other, two studies of out-of-hospital (OOH) birth were published that came to opposite conclusions on the safety of OOH birth for babies. One of them found that planned OOH birth slightly increased the risk of fetal (antepartum + intrapartum), perinatal (fetal + neonatal), and neonatal (death occurring by < 28 days) deaths per 1000 in the population planning OOH birth while the other found no differences. In this guest post for Lamaze’s blog Connecting the Dots, I begin by comparing and contrasting the two studies in the context of other studies of OOH birth and conclude that it’s time to stop asking “Is OOH birth safe or isn’t it?” because it’s pretty clear that the answer is “It depends.” The more significant question is: “What factors influence outcomes?” I think you’ll find my answers to that question both informative and useful.