A new study found that women with low-risk pregnancies, who decide to deliver their babies at home, do not expose their babies to any greater risk than if they were to deliver them in hospital. The mothers also had fewer interventions like episiotomies, pain mitigation, or medication to augment labour.
The vast majority of Canadian women give birth in hospitals, although home births are increasing. In 2012, less than two per cent of babies were born at home—that is less than 7,000. In fact, delivering at home was illegal in at least one province until 1998.
‘Outcomes were very similar’
The study in the province of Ontario compared 11,493 planned home births with the same number of planned hospital births over a three-year period. It involved both first-mothers and those who had already given birth.
“The outcomes for babies being born at home were very similar to those of babies born in hospital. And these were in both cases, low-risk women planning their births with midwives,” says Eileen Hutton, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at McMaster University and dean in midwifery.
“What we can conclude is that if you plan to have your baby at home with midwives, the outcomes for the baby are very good. We also found that the likelihood of having interventions for the mother are lower.”
ListenThe study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The authors hope there will be many other such studies corroborating their evidence.
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