Home birth with midwife safe

09/14/2009 ANA SmartBrief via Yahoo!/HealthDay News (8/31) by Amanda Gardner

Canadian researchers looked at data on almost 13,000 births. Infant mortality rate was 0.35 per 1,000 for those occurring at home, compared with 0.57 for hospital births attended by midwives and 0.64 for physician-assisted deliveries.

Aurthor, Patricia Janssen, conducted the study in British Columbia. This study may have selected only the healthiest birthing mothers, so the results may be biased towards home births. Nevertheless, more studies are showing home births as a safe alternative for healthy pregnant mothers and their babies.

However, midwifery is not a regulatd profession in U.S. A uniform regulatory process and licensure needs to be established.

Also intriguing is that home births may promote immediate breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact between mom and baby.
Elly Hann: ellyhann@epibinursingpads.com