A new French survey assesses the impacts of home birth on the health of mothers and newborns.
- 36% of French women are interested in home birth.
- A transfer to the emergency room is only necessary in 3% of home births.
- Perinatal deaths (0.2%) are not more frequent at home than elsewhere (0.87% in hospital).
A new report has studied the impact of home births on the health of mothers and infants.
Health and home births: why a new report?
“National reports on home birth in France are conducted by theProfessional Association of Accompanied Home Birth (APAAD) since 2018. They aim to provide reliable indicators that make it possible to monitor the perinatal health of women giving birth at home, accompanied by a midwife.state-certified woman, and that of their newborns”, specify the authors of the research in the preamble. “These reports also aim to encourage health authorities and our leaders to stop burying their heads in the sand regarding the institutional framework for home birth on the grounds that this offer would be marginal, even though according to Ifop, it would interest 36% of French women in 2021″, they add.
Caesarean section, episiotomy, resuscitation: the impacts of home births on health
First lesson from the survey: women with severe delivery bleeding are not more numerous when they give birth at home (1.6%) than in another place of birth (3% in hospital).
“Perinatal deaths (0.2%) are not more frequent at home than elsewhere (0.87% in hospital). The same goes for children requiring neonatal resuscitation, with 0.6% at home against 2 % to the hospital”, continue the activists.
Furthermore, instrumental births (0.8% at home compared to 12.4% in hospital) and cesarean sections (0.3% compared to 21.4%) are very rare during home births, as are the need for epidural anesthesia (3.5% versus 82.7%) and the use of episiotomy (0.3% versus 8.3%).
For “the integration of home birth into perinatal care provision”
Finally, a transfer to the emergency room is not necessary in only 3% of home births.
“With these data, we are asking French political and public health authorities to integrate home birth into the perinatal care offering, to offer it a real framework and fully finance it”, concludes the professional association for accompanied home birth.
