I have tried to put the main findings of the research listed here in plain English. Each summary of a research paper includes a link to its abstract on Medline, the international database of medical research, or to the full study in an online medical journal, where either is available. This is so that you can check the original report for yourself, rather than relying on my summary.
The research summaries are presented as five long pages, to make printing easy.
How do we know which studies are fair? The notes
on methodology offer some pointers. Some critics of homebirth safety feel that much of the research on homebirth is biased in its favour, and so I intend during 2007 to give more detailed critiques of the studies listed here. I do not believe that homebirth advocates need to rely on substandard research; it is important that women can feel confident in the studies they use to inform their choices.
Page One:
- National
Birthday Trust Report By Chamberlain et al, 1997 - enquiry into UK home births in 1994.
- Birth at home By Chamberlain, Wraight and Crowley, 1997.
Page Two:
- British
Medical Journal editorial on home births, 23 November
1996
- Outcome of
planned home and planned hospital births in low risk
pregnancies: prospective study in midwifery practices in
the Netherlands By Wiegers, Keirse, van der Zee and
Berghs, 1996
- Prospective regional
study of planned home births By Davies et al, 1996 (Interesting data on transfers to hospital)
- Home versus hospital
deliveries: follow up study of matched pairs By
Ackermann-Liebrich et al, 1996
- Collaborative survey of
perinatal loss in planned and unplanned home births
Northern Region Perinatal Mortality Survey Coordinating
Group, 1996
- Perinatal deaths
associated with planned home birth in Australia By
Bastian et al, 1998
- Home births in South-West
Australia By Howe, 1988
- A matched cohort study
of planned home and hospital births in Western Australia
1981-1987 By Woodcock et al.
- Home
Birth in New Zealand, 1973-1993 By Gulbransen et al.
Page Three:
- Place of delivery: a
review, by Campbell et al, 1986
- Home births in
England and Wales, 1979, by Campbell et al, 1984
- The Safety of
Home Birth: The Farm Study by A. Mark Durand, MD,
MPH, 1992
- Five year prospective
study of risk of booking for a home birth in Essex by
JM Shearer, 1985
- Licensed
midwife-attended, out-of-hospital births in Washington
State: are they safe? By Janssen et al, 1994
- Outcomes
of 1001 midwife-attended home births in Toronto, 1983-1988 by H Tyson, 1991
- Outcomes
of planned home births in an inner-city practice By
Ford et al, 1991
- Birth
setting for low-risk pregnancies By Albers and Katz, 1991
- Outcomes of intended home births in
nurse-midwifery practice By Murphy and Fullerton, 1998
- Meta-analysis
of the safety of home birth By Olsen, 1997
- Outcomes
of 11,788 planned home births attended by certified
nurse-midwives. A retrospective descriptive study By Anderson and Murphy, 1995.
Page Four: Controversies
- Data on babies' safety during hospital births are being ignored - Drife, 1999.
- Do obstetric intranatal interventions make birth safer? - Tew, 1986
- Are hospital confinements really more dangerous for the fetus? - Golding and Peters, 1988
- Home versus hospital birth - Cochrane Database Review - Olsen and Jewell, 2000
Page Five: Odds and Ends
- Simulated
home delivery in hospital - a randomised, controlled
trial By MacVicar et al., 1993
- The
Cost-Effectiveness of Home Birth By Anderson and Anderson, 1999
- Physician-
and midwife-attended home births: effect of breech, twin
and post-dates outcome on mortality rates. By
Mehl-Madrona and Madrona, 1997
- Home
Delivery and Scientific Reasoning By Olsen, 1994
- Perineal
outcomes in a home birth setting By Aikins Murphy and Feinlan, 1998
- Blues and depression
during early puerperium: home versus hospital deliveries By Pop et al, 1995.
- Home birth and hospital deliveries: a comparison of the perceived painfulness of parturition By Morse and Park, 1988.
- Babies born before arrival at hospital, by
Bhoopalam and Watkinson, 1991
Page Six: Transferring from a Home Birth
This page looks at studies which reported on mothers who planned home births but transferred to hospital. Some of the studies are discussed on other pages, as noted below; this page focusses only on their findings regarding transfers.
- Transfer from home to hospital: what is its
effect on the experience of childbirth? By Wiegers et al, 1998.
- Place of delivery in The Netherlands: actual location of
confinement By Kleiverda et al, 1991.
- Four years' experience with home birth by licensed midwives in Arizona. By
Sullivan and Beeman, 1983
- National Birthday Trust Report, also featured on Page One.
- Blues and depression
during early puerperium: home versus hospital deliveries By Pop et al, 1995. Study also featured on Page One but transfer rates only mentioned here.
- Home births in South-West
Australia By Howe, 1988, also featured on Page Two.
- Prospective regional
study of planned home births By Davies et al, 1996, also featured on Page Two.
- Outcomes
of 1001 midwife-attended home births in Toronto, 1983-1988 by H Tyson, 1991, also featured on Page Three.
Vaginal Birth After Caesarean
For research on Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC), please see the VBAC Pages.
Home Birth Reference Page
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www.homebirth.org.uk