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Home births safe

A Canadian study reported on the website WebMD finds that women who are in good health and at low risk for complications would be better off having their babies at home rather than in a hospital.

The researchers compared results during and after 862 planned home births attended by midwives, 571 planned hospital births attended by midwives and 743 planned hospital birth attended by doctors.

"Women who gave birth at home attended by a midwife had fewer procedures during labor compared with women who gave birth in a hospital attended by a physician," the researchers write.

And it didn't make much difference if a hospital birth was attended by a midwife or a doctor. Hospital births meant more medical procedures for the women, greater chances of experiencing a torn perineum and a significantly higher rate of infection. Even after taking into account risk factors such as maternal age, being a single parent, low income, and substance abuse, women giving birth in the hospital were much more likely to have an epidural, have their delivery induced or to have an episiotomy.

"There was no increased maternal or neonatal risk associated with planned home birth under the care of a regulated midwife," the authors write. In fact, the rates of complications in home births were too low to even draw any statistically significant conclusions. The authors suggested that "ongoing evaluation of home birth is warranted." Indeed.

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