Science and Sensibility_ Choice of Birth Place in the United States (printer-friendly)

Rates of planned home birth in the United States have remained at less than 1% for several decades, but current public discourse suggests that women are increasingly interested in this option. International investigators have defined "planned home birth" as the care of selected pregnant women by qualified practitioners within a system that provides for hospitalization when necessary. Safety of birth in any setting is of utmost priority and has been the focus of home-birth research and current professional and public debate. Many women and their families are aware that, in national and international settings, home births conducted in environments of multidisciplinary communication and integration of resources are associated with similar perinatal outcomes and fewer obstetric interventions compared with hospital births.[1-10]