I was very happy to log onto my favorite news source (uh-hem, Facebook) and find this article from USA Today that reads "Study: Home birth with midwife as safe as hospital birth" Glory Hallelujah! I couldn't be more excited to find a major U.S. news source stating what the home birth community already knows.
The study was done in Canada, where midwifery is a more open and more accepted practice than here in the U.S. They documented 13,000 births, about 1/3 were home births with a midwife, 1/3 hospital births with the same group of midwives, and the other 1/3 hospital births with an obstetrician and compared the data sets. They found that out of 1,000 live births, the infant mortality rate among the home birth group was .35, the hospital with a midwife group was .57, and the hospital group who birthed with an OB was .64. The statistics alone say that home birth is actually not as safe as hospital birth - it is SAFER! However, I will concede that they are not necessarily comparing apples to apples. What we need to know is how many of the hospital patients were low-risk births. Midwives will usually not attend home births for clients who have high-risk factors or who have breech babies or premature babies. Many home birthing mothers are overall healthier and pay more attention to diet pre and post conception, which may help have a positive outcome of birth. The article also states that women who birth at home need less medical intervention and have fewer complications like hemorrhage and vaginal tearing.
The article also states the problem with midwifery here in the U.S. is that many states do not regulate midwives. It says that the medical community sees home birth as unsafe because many "midwives" may not have the proper education or necessary credentials. However, there are about a dozen states in the nation where practicing midwifery is illegal, several states who do not license midwives, and several more states where midwives are totally unregulated. This is a complete double-standard where the public is warned that home birth is dangerous because midwifery is not regulated, while the states could choose to regulate and license midwives.
Articles like these bring home birth and midwifery to the public eye, and for that I am very grateful. The more home birth is seen as a safe and good option, the more pressure will be put on states, like my home state, to certify and legalized Certified Professional Midwives.
The picture is my wonderful midwife, checking out my newborn.
