CORVALLIS, Oregon — In the largest national study of its kind, Oregon State University researchers found that low-risk, planned home births are as safe as planned births at accredited birth centers.
According to the study’s authors, the results contradict, “doctors’ long-held concerns about home birth” and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' belief that hospitals — and to a slightly lesser degree, other accredited birth centers — are the safest places to have a baby.
Many pregnant women prefer the idea of having a baby at home with the help of a midwife or home care nurse.
In the largest study of its kind, OSU scientists analyzed two national registries for community births to compare health outcomes for both planned births at home and planned births in a birth center with low-risk pregnancies.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 100,000 births during a seven-year period, including statistics from all 50 states.
“If there’ve been no complications during the pregnancy,” said OSU Professor of Medical Anthropology Melissa Cheyney, one of the study’s authors, “the labor is moving along smoothly, then the research suggests it is safe to go ahead and have that birth at home.”
But Professor Cheyney said there are caveats.
“If you want an epidural, if you’re requiring a cesarean birth or a vacuum extraction, which is a way to help the baby be born vaginally, then you’d have to move to a hospital for that level of care,” she said.
Cheyney said improved technology, which can be transported to a home, helps midwives track fetal heart rates and vital signs and can help other challenges, such as maternal bleeding or infant breathing problems.
She said planning home births less than 30 minutes away from a hospital helps provide another layer of security. “We can either get into the car and go to the hospital, or call 911, if it’s urgent.”
But still, concerns about home births remain in the broader medical community.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states on its website that the safest place to give birth is a hospital. It warns that home births pose a twofold risk of perinatal death, meaning during pregnancy, birth or infancy.
Professor Cheyney said that a key takeaway from the study is the importance of working together to ensure the safety of mother and child.
“We need a more integrated system, where we have a better understanding of what’s occurring outside the hospital as well as inside the hospital," Cheyney said.
