A large Washington State study affirms that planning birth in a free-standing birth center or at home (community birth) can be as safe as planned hospital birth provided: Women are at low-risk for complications. Births are attended by a professional midwife. Midwives...
With the Duchess of Cambridge apparently lobbying for a home birth (Be it ever so grandiose, there’s no place like home?) and inspiring U.K. women to follow in her wake, it seems relevant to summarize the newest community birth study, a New Zealand study of...
UPI has published an article on the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) data analysis, “Perspectives on risk: Assessment of risk profiles and outcomes among women planning community birth in the United States.” As you can tell by the title, the study evaluates...
The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) has published a revised and updated Committee Opinion on “Planned Home Birth.” If you read the media reports on it, you would think the new Opinion is “same-old, same-old,” but there are some...
Popping up all over the internet this past week were the results of a New England Journal of Medicine study of Oregon State statistics finding that planned out-of-hospital birth slightly increases risk of perinatal death but greatly reduces likelihood of cesarean in...
The Toronto Star reports on a large study comparing outcomes between 11,493 low-risk Canadian women planning home birth at the onset of labor and a random sample of 11,493 equally low-risk women planning hospital birth, both cared for by the same midwives. To...
Amid the ‘net brouhaha over Jessa Duggar’s postpartum transfer for severe bleeding after home birth, one article stands out as the voice of sanity: “Jessa Duggar's midwife did exactly what she should have done” explains that the system worked exactly as it should when...
A Washington Post article runs under the heading: "Giving birth at home is cheaper than at hospitals, study says, but is it safe?" The study, which is available for free, compared costs associated with planned home birth with a midwife, planned hospital birth with a...
Check out Henci’s Connecting the Dots post on Neel Shah’s New England of Journal of Medicine commentary. Shah agreed with recent U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines concluding that low-risk women would be better off at home or in a...
The first in Henci’s new Take Charge of Your Birth Series, Labor Pain: What’s Your Best Strategy? delivers up-to-date access to the best medical research plus practical strategies for developing your plan and putting it into action. Also available in audiobook.
