Home birth just as safe as hospital delivery, study says

Women who give birth at home run the same risk of losing their baby at birth or right after as those who choose hospital delivery, according to a study of more than 500,000 Dutch women.

The study was carried out jointly by the TNO research institute, the AMC hospital in Amsterdam and the UMC hospital in Maastricht and was published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology on Wednesday.

High infant mortality rate

Almost a third of all pregnant women give birth at home in the Netherlands, far more than in other western countries. A large European study into infant mortality last year showed that the Netherlands ranks 24 out of the 26 nations investigated. The high infant mortality rate in the Netherlands has often been blamed on the large number of home births.

The new study shows there is no difference between home or hospital delivery with regard to infant death rate at or up to one week after birth, nor do more babies end up in intensive care when the mother gives birth at home. This is the first time large-scale research has been done into the safety of home birth, which is typically preferred by women who are native Dutch, have given birth before, are not teenagers and have a substantially higher education.

Older moms

If home births are not the reason for the high mortality rate in the Netherlands, the question remains what is. The Netherlands has less screening during pregnancies than other European countries, and Dutch neonatologists are more reluctant to treat severely ill newborns. Also, Dutch mothers are older on average than other European countries with the exception of Ireland and Spain. One in five Dutch women who gives birth is over 35. Research has also shown that women from ethnic minorities have a 40 percent higher risk of losing their baby in the Netherlands.