When it comes to giving birth, most of us don’t think twice about choosing to do so in a hospital.
Giving birth in hospitals is a fairly recent occurrence in modern history, as before that all births were done at home.
All of my grandparents were born at home and the thought did cross my mind to have a home birth on my second pregnancy. I decided not to as I had gotten into difficulty on my first child, but more and more mums are opting for a more traditional home birth.
An international study published in The Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine journal claims that home births are just as safe as hospital births and found that there was almost no difference in how mothers recovered.
Researchers examined the safety of the place of birth by reporting on the risk of death at the time of birth within the first four weeks.
The study led by McMaster University found that low-risk pregnant women who want to give birth at home have no increased chance of the baby’s perinatal or neonatal death compared to other low-risk women who give birth in a hospital.
According to Eileen Hutton, Professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynaecology at McMaster University;
“More women in well-resourced countries are choosing birth at home, but concerns have persisted about their safety. This research clearly demonstrates the risk is no different when the birth is intended to be at home or in hospital.”
The study pulled from the hospital and home birth data collected in several countries including Sweden, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, Australia, the US, England and the Netherlands.
