In low-risk pregnancies, mothers and children are just as safe with a planned home birth as they are with a planned birth center birth, a national study led by Oregon State University researchers has shown. The findings, published in Medical Care , contradict doctors' long-held concerns about home birth, including a recent opinion by the American College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians that describes hospitals and accredited birth centers as the safest places to have a baby. A birth center is a health care facility designed to provide a more natural and home-like environment than a hospital.
OSU scientists analyzed two national registries for community births – planned birth either at home or in a birth center for low-risk pregnancies – in the largest study to examine how the settings compared to each other in terms of health outcomes. A low-risk pregnancy is defined as a single baby being carried to full term (at least 37 weeks) and positioned with its head down, with no major maternal complications such as diabetes or pre-eclampsia. At least 70% of pregnancies are low risk, said Marit Bovbjerg, an associate professor in the Oregon State College of Health.
Combined, the two registries documented more than 110,000 births from 2012 to 2019, representing all 50 U.S. states, and the data showed no safety difference between home birth and birth center birth.
Historically, physicians in the U.S. have objected to planned home births but not planned birth center births, even .