Home Births Increase To 37-Year High, More Common Among White Women

In nearly 40 years, the percentage of U.S. babies born outside of hospitals has reached its highest level, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to the report, 1.36 percent of all U.S. births occurred outside of hospitals - either at home, or at a birthing center - in 2012. It is up from 1.26 percent in 2011, LiveScience reported.

With home and birthing center births being on the rise since 2004, the 2012 level is the highest since 1975, the report said.

"Out-of-hospital births were more common among white women compared with other races: About 1 in 50 births to white women, or 2 percent, were outside of a hospital, compared to 0.54 percent of births to Asian or Pacific Islander women, 0.49 percent of births to black women and 0.46 percent of births to Hispanic women," LiveScience reported.

The percentage of home and birthing center births tended to be in the Northwestern states. In Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska, and Pennsylvania, more than three percent of births took place outside of a hospital.

Compared with births that took place in hospitals, out-of-hospital births had lower rates of some complications.

According to the report, from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of babies born preterm or at a low birth weight was lower among out-of-hospital births compared to hospital births.

The finding suggests that a relatively larger proportion of out-of-hospital births consist of women who have a low risk of pregnancy complications (such as preterm birth), the researchers said.

In other words, women at higher risk for these complications are appropriately giving birth in hospitals instead of in other settings, LiveScience reported

Lynn Johnson, a midwife and administrator of Women's and Children's Services at Huntington Hospital in Huntington N.Y., said midwives have criteria that they use to determine which women are candidates for home births, and these are women who have normal-risk pregnancies.

Most home births are planned, studies show. In 36 states, about 88 percent of home births were planned in 2012, according to the report. Unplanned home births are more likely than planned home births to result in preterm birth or low birth weight babies, the researchers said.

According to LiveScience, Johnson said that giving birth at home or in a birthing center is becoming more popular in areas where it used to be less common. Johnson's hospital offers a hospital-based midwifery program, in which midwives and physicians collaborate in the woman's birthing experience, Johnson said

In a new report, researchers noted that the number of U.S. birthing centers increased from 170 in 2004, to nearly 2,050 in early 2013.

The report is published on March 4 by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

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