Women who are pregnant for the first time and decide to have a home birth should be aware that there is a significantly higher risk of complications, compared to first time mothers who have the baby in an an obstetric or midwifery unit.
For the first time mothers who choose home birth are nearly three times more likely to have a baby who dies or suffers brain damage.
For the first time mothers who choose home birth are nearly three times more likely to have a baby who dies or suffers brain damage.
Almost half of women who chose to give birth at home had to be transferred to a hospital because of complications during labor.
Such emergencies require intense medical attention, and are linked to trauma at birth or the baby becoming distressed or deprived of oxygen, potentially causing brain damage.
to determine what the perinatal outcomes and interventions might be at four birthplace settings across all NHS trusts in England:
Planned places of birth included:
- The mother's home
- Freestanding midwifery units
- Midwife-led units at a hospital which also had an obstetric unit
- Obstetric units
They collected data on the following adverse outcomes:
- Upper arm or shoulder injuries during birth
- Meconium aspiration syndrome - feces in the lungs of the baby
- Early neonatal death
- Encephalopathy (brain injury)
- Stillbirth after start of care in labor
For women who had already given birth before - multiparous women - there was no significant difference in risk between having the baby at home or elsewhere (uncomplicated pregnancies).
The intervention rate during labor was considerably lower in all non-obstetric unit settings, compared to obstetric unit ones.
45% of first time mothers were transferred from a non-obstetric unit setting to an obstetric one, compared to just 13% of those giving birth for the second, third time
