Safe & Healthy Outcomes

• Results are consistent with most studies of planned home births and low risk hospital births
• Zero maternal deaths
• Intrapartum and neonatal mortality: 2.0 per 1000 intended home births (only 1.7 per 1000 intended
  home births when planned breech and twin births are excluded)
• Immediate neonatal concerns resulted in just 2.4% of newborns being placed in neonatal intensive
  care
• At six weeks well over 90% of mothers were still breastfeeding their babies

Low Rates of Medical Intervention

• Much lower rates of interventions for intended home births compared to low risk hospital births:

  	Planned home birth	Hospital birth
  Induction of labor (only with oxytocin or prostaglandins)	2.1% *	21.0%
  Stimulation of labor (only with oxytocin)	2.7% *	18.9%
  Electronic fetal monitoring	9.6%	84.3%
  Episiotomy	2.1%	33.0%
  Vacuum Extraction	0.6%	5.5%
  Cesarean Section	3.7%	19.0%

  * These numbers differ from the BMJ article where data for CPMs included forms of induction and stimulation only used by midwives and not comparable to hospital births.

Satisfied Mothers

• Only 1.7% of the mothers said they would choose a different type of caregiver for a future pregnancy

Few Transfers to Hospital Care

• Only 12.1% transferred to hospital intrapartum or postpartum
• Five out of six transfers were before delivery, most for failure to progress, pain relief or exhaustion
• Midwife considered transfer urgent in only 3.4% of intended home births

High Credibility

• Included all home births involving Certified Professional Midwives in the year 2000
• 5,418 women in U.S. and Canada who intended to give birth at home as of the start of labor
• Prospective - every planned home birth was registered in the study prior to labor and delivery

"Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America."
Kenneth C Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss. BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June). This article and related letters to the
editor are available online, free, at http://www.bmj.com. (Use the search feature and type Daviss for the author.)