The latest research, published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics, focused on the Netherlands, where around 30 per cent of births take place at home.
Of all births in England and Wales in 2006, 2.7 per cent took place at home, the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed. A total of 18,100 were at home, out of a total of 662,915.
The number of home births has been on the rise from an all-time low of 0.9 per cent in 1988 and a major study is currently being carried out into the safety of giving birth in different settings in England and will report by the end of 2010.
http://www.euronews24.org/united-kingdom/home-births-as-safe-as-hospital-1/