Planned homebirths shown safe, again.The long-awaited study of home births attended by Certified See certification. Professional Midwives (CPMs) in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and Canada during the year 2000 is finally here! The study, published in the June 18th issue of the British Medical Journal The British Medical Journal, or BMJ, is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world.[2] It is published by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd (owned by the British Medical Association), whose other (BMJ BMJ n abbr (= British Medical Journal) → vom BMA herausgegebene Zeitschrift ) found that planned home births for low risk women are associated with similar safety, less medical intervention, and a higher rate of maternal satisfaction than low risk hospital births. This study makes a significant contribution to the evidence in favor of midwifery midwifery (mĭd`wī'fərē), art of assisting at childbirth. The term midwife for centuries referred to a woman who was an overseer during the process of delivery. In ancient Greece and Rome, these women had some formal training. care in the home. The study is prospective (initial data submitted before the birth took place, so no births could be "left out") and is the largest study of its kind, involving 5,418 women attended by CPMs across the United States and Canada in 2000. This study cannot be disregarded based on size or on its relevance to US populations and circumstances. The study demonstrates unequivocally that for "low risk" mothers, home birth attended by a CPM (1) (Critical Path Method) A project management planning and control technique implemented on computers. The critical path is the series of activities and tasks in the project that have no built-in slack time. results in outcomes comparable to low risk births in the hospital. Planned home births mortality rate during labor and birth is similar to that in most studies of low risk hospital births in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. . Rates of medical intervention were lower for homebirths, suggesting that many of the interventions done in the hospital are unnecessary. Such unnecessary interventions are costly and are associated with increased complications for mothers and babies. A high degree of maternal satisfaction was also reported. Over 97% of mothers reported that they were either extremely or very satisfied with their birth experience. Of the women who gave birth at home, 95.8% were still breastfeeding at six weeks postpartum postpartum /post·par·tum/ (post-pahr´tum) occurring after childbirth, with reference to the mother. post·par·tum adj. Of or occurring in the period shortly after childbirth. , with 89.7% of them breastfeeding exclusively. "Our study of certified professional midwives suggests that they achieve good outcomes among low risk women without routine use of expensive hospital interventions," say the authors. "This evidence supports the American Public Health Association's recommendation to increase access to out of hospital maternity care services with direct entry midwives in the United States." You can read the entire paper online at: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/ 7505/1416?ehom The following page has a fact sheet created by Citizens for Midwifery. This could be useful with clients (or their family) who are skeptical about the safety of midwife-attended, planned home births. "Outcomes of planned homebirths with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America." British Medical Journal, June 18, 2005; 330:1416. |
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