Posted on May 20, 2011

Home Births Up 20%, Driven by Natural Birth Subculture

USA Today, May 19, 2011

Home births rose 20% over four years, government figures show, reflecting what experts say is a small subculture among white women toward natural birth.

The increase was driven by white women–1 in 98 had their babies at home in 2008, the most recent year for which the statistics were available.

Fewer than 1% of U.S. births occur at home. But the proportion is clearly going up, {snip}.

The increase was driven by white women–1 in 98 had their babies at home in 2008, the most recent year for which the statistics were available.

Only about 1 in 357 black women give birth at home, and just 1 in 500 Hispanic women do.

“I think there’s more of a natural birth subculture going on with white women–an interest in a low-intervention birth in a familiar setting,” said the lead author, Marian MacDorman of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

{snip}

The increase is notable because doctors groups have been increasingly vocal about opposing home births, The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has for years warned against home births, arguing they can be unsafe, especially if the mother has high-risk medical conditions, if the attendant is inadequately trained or if there’s no quick way to get mother and child to a hospital if something goes awry.

Doctor participation in home births declined by 38% from 2004 to 2008. The percentage of home births attended by certified midwives and nurse-midwives grew, meanwhile.

{snip}

Exactly how unsafe home births are is a matter of medical controversy, with studies offering conflicting conclusions. And some argue that hospitals present their own dangers of infection and sometimes unnecessary medical interventions.

The CDC researchers did find that home births involving medical risks became less common from 2004 to 2008. Home births of infants born prematurely fell by 16%, so that by 2008 only 6% of all home births involved preterm births. That’s less than half the percentage in hospitals.

[“United States Home Births Increase 20 Percent from 2004 to 2008,” by Marian F. MacDorman, et al., can be downloaded here. There is a charge.]