In the United Kingdom women have the right to birth at home if they so choose, and this
right is reflected in many other countries around the world.
'In countries and areas where it is possible to establish a home birth service backed up by a
modern hospital system, all low risk pregnant women should be offered the possibility of
considering a planned home birth and should be informed about the quality of the available
evidence to guide their choice'. (Cochrane Review: Home versus hospital birth
1
(
'Women should be offered the choice of planning birth at home, in a midwife-led unit or in an
obstetric unit.' (National Collaborating Centre for Women's and Children's Health
2
(
'Our results support a policy of offering healthy nulliparous [first pregnancies]and
multiparous [subsequent pregnancies] women with low risk pregnancies a choice of birth
setting. Adverse perinatal outcomes are uncommon in all settings, while interventions during
labour and birth are much less common for births planned in non-obstetric unit settings.'
(Birthplace in England Collaborative Group
3
n: This study demonstrates the safety of the midwifery-led birth center model of collaborative care as well as continued low obstetric
intervention rates, similar to previous studies of birth center care. These findings are particularly remarkable in an era characterized by increases
in obstetric intervention and cesarean birth nationwide.
J MidwiferyWomens Health 2013;58:3–14c 2013 by the American College of Nurse-Midwives