Giving birth in a hospital is much safer than having a baby at home or in a birthing center, a new study has found.
The findings, published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, are based on an analysis of information collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2006 to 2009 on almost 14 million births, including 130,000 non-hospital deliveries.
They examined both early death (within seven days of birth) and neonatal death (within 28 days) among full-term babies without congenital malformations. Babies born outside hospitals had higher rates of death, according to a report on the study in
The New York Times.
Over all, babies delivered by midwives at home had nearly four times the risk for death compared with those delivered by hospital-based midwives. With 25,000 home births per year in the United States, the analysis suggests about 23 additional neonatal deaths annually.