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The safety of planned home birth in the U.S. remains controversial in the absence of large-scale studies (NEJM JW Womens Health Feb 24 2011). To address this issue, investigators analyzed outcomes of all low-risk, singleton term births in 2008 in 27 states with relevant birth-certificate data. Women with prior cesarean deliveries were included.
Of 2 million eligible women, 12,000 had planned home births. These women were more likely than those who delivered in hospitals to be multiparous, aged ≥35, non-Latina white, married, college or postgraduate educated, and to initiate prenatal care at ≥4 months' gestation. Infants born at home were twice as likely to have 5-minute Apgar scores <4 and three times as likely to have neonatal seizures than…