Serious, intelligent women are saying “no” to maternity care that, contrary to what obstetricians and hospitals would lead us to believe, actually increases risk and danger for mother and baby. Women who choose to give birth at home are making their decisions based on best evidence. If you need to be convinced visit the Cochrane Library, or read A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth, or read our book. The Childbirth Connection response to the 2006 ACOG policy statement on home birth is also important reading.
The Cochrane review has not been updated since 1998. At that time there was only one study reviewed and that had a small sample. In spite of that, the recommendation was, and continues to be, that healthy women should not be advised against home birth. That recommendation is based on two realities: there is no evidence (and there never has been) that hospital birth is safer than planned home birth; and, there is no evidence that planned home birth is not as safe as hospital birth. In 2005 a large study of home birth was published in the British Medical Journal. The study meets all the standards for scientific rigor. The research findings? For a healthy woman having a normal pregnancy, a planned, midwife attended home birth is as safe as a hospital birth and with far lower rates of medical interventions (that bring their own short and long term dangers).