Outcomes of planned home birth with a registered midwife versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician

For further information, contact Melissa Maimann at Essential Birth Consulting.

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More research to prove the safety of low risk home birth. It’s interesting to note that VBACs are included in this home birth study as low risk. For the record, there were 2 uterine ruptures, both in the hospital-doctor-attended births. The rate of rupture was therefore 0.0154%. Much lower than the oft-quoted 0.7%. The midwives must be doing something right!

Giving birth at home with a midwife present is as safe as a hospital delivery accompanied by a doctor, suggests a new Canadian study …

Actually, they got that bit wrong. Midwife-attended home birth was not found to be as safe as doctor-attended hospital birth: it was found to be the safest. The safest way for a low risk woman to birth is at home with a midwife, then in hospital with a midwife, and the most dangerous way to birth, according to the study, was with an obstetrician in hospital.

The study … analysed nearly 2,900 planned home births in British Columbia that were attended by regulated midwives, more than 4,700 planned hospital births attended by the same midwives and more than 5,300 hospital births attended by physicians.

The perinatal death rate per 1,000 births was also low across all three groups.

But it was lowest amongst the midwife-attended home births.

“The decision to plan a birth attended by a registered midwife at home versus in hospital was associated with very low and comparable rates of perinatal death,” the authors said. “Women who planned a home birth were at reduced risk of all obstetric interventions assessed and were at similar or reduced risk of adverse maternal outcomes compared with women who planned to give birth in hospital accompanied by a midwife or physician.”

The findings add to the ongoing debate about the safety of home births. According to the study, research from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand has not found a link between planned home births and an increased risk of complications …

This research adds to the growing body of research that is no longer suggesting – but proving – that low risk home birth is safe. I think we can mount a strong case that the Australian Government is now putting women at risk by failing to indemnify midwives for home births after 2010.

Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448

Tags: birth, Birth choices, Caesarean, Complicated pregnancy or birth, continuity of care, CTG, Epidural, fetal monitoring, Home birth, hospital birth, intervention, midwife, Midwifery services, Obstetrics, Public and private hospitals, VBAC, women's rights

Put The Safety Of Babies And Their Mothers Ahead Of Home Birth Ideology

For further information, contact Melissa Maimann at Essential Birth Consulting.

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The title of this article is offensive to say the least! The vast majority of home birthing women do not put home birth ideology ahead of a safe birth.

Australia’s peak group of obstetricians and gynaecologists today repeated its warning that home births – with or without a midwife – carry too much risk to babies and their mothers and the Government should resist calls to indemnify midwives outside of hospitals.

For starters, she does not seem to even acknowledge the difference between midwife-attended home births and free births.

The President of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (NASOG), Dr Hilary Joyce, congratulated the Government-majority Senate Committee investigating proposed legislation relating to the role of midwives, for putting the safety of babies ahead of protestations by a small but vocal minority of people.

“I would urge all politicians to look to the evidence and to speak to the doctors and the midwives who have to deal with some of the tragic consequences of home births,” Dr Joyce said today.

“Australia has one of the safest and highest quality maternity services in the world where specialist doctors work side by side with qualified midwives to ensure babies and their mothers have a safe and successful birth experience.”

Safe and successful? Many women who enter the hospital system to give birth come away traumatised. The majority of women who birth at home with a midwife are happy and satisfied with their experience. Rates of mortality are the same for low risk women whether they birth at home or in hospital. But morbidity is far higher in hospital.

… “There is irrefutable evidence that women and babies are significantly safer in hospitals because of the immediate access to specialist care. Thankfully, only 0.25% of Australian women risk their lives and that of their babies by choosing a home birth.”

I’d like to see this irrefutable evidence. I cannot find it. “only 0.25% of Australian women risk their lives and that of their babies by choosing a home birth.” – is this offensive or what? The vast majority of home birthing women I know will not risk their baby’s life or their own simply to birth at home.

Dr Joyce said the Minister for Health and Ageing was acting in the best interests of babies and their mothers by refusing to financially endorse the unsafe practice of delivering babies at home.

“There are things that can go wrong suddenly in a birth which, if not under specialist care or near medical assistance, can result in an avoidable death or permanent injury,” Dr Joyce explained …

Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting 0400 418 448

Tags: Babies, birth, Birth choices, Birth trauma, Complicated pregnancy or birth, continuity of care, freebirth, Home birth, intervention, Maternity Services Review, midwife, Midwifery, Midwifery services, Obstetrics, Public and private hospitals, women's rights