It’s about time! I was glad to see in yesterday’s Midwifery Today E-News that occurrences of home birth are on the rise, for the first time in more than a decade. It’s reassuring to know that all of the hard work being done to normalize and de-stigmatize home birth is beginning to pay off.
The report, titled “Trends and Characteristics of Home and Other Out-of-Hospital Births in the United States, 1990–2006,” was put out by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. It states that despite a steady decline from 1990-2004, the occurrence of out-of-hospital births increased 3% by 2006, and home birth specifically increased by 5% in 2005. What a fantastic shift of events, for a government agency to investigate home birth and find positive results!
Some of the findings:
- The most likely consumers of out-of-hospital birth options were white, married women older than 25, who have had previous children.
- 61% of the home births in the report were attended by midwives.
- The home births in the report were “less likely than hospital births to be preterm, low birthweight, or multiple deliveries.”
- The states with the highest rates of home birth were Montana and Vermont at 2%
- The states with the lowest rates of home birth were Nebraska and Louisiana and Nebraska at 0.2%
Congratulations to the midwives, birthing women, and activists who have worked so hard to bring back the tradition of birthing where you want to. Let’s keep going!
I didn’t get to read through the report, but I’m curious as to if poverty rates of the states play into which have the higher and lower rates of home birth.