Place Matters: Outcomes for Planned Out-of-Hospital Births

Although absolute risks for adverse perinatal outcomes were small, they were higher among births intended to occur outside the hospital setting.

In recent years the likelihood of planned and actual births outside of hospital settings has increased, driven partly by some women's desire to avoid medicalization of the process. However, in studies exploring outcomes for women planning home birth, disentangling births planned at home (but delivered in hospitals) from those originally planned for the hospital has proved difficult. Investigators in Oregon capitalized on statewide changes in birth certificate queries to examine outcomes by delivery plan at onset of labor.

Among almost 80,000 low-risk births from 2012 through 2013, 4.8% were planned as out of hospital; of these, 15.8% ultimately required hospital transfer after labor began. Rates of perinatal death were 3.9 deaths per 1000 de…

Reviewing Author

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesSociety for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (Board of Directors)

Allison Bryant, MD, MPH

Disclosures

RoyaltiesUpToDate

Leadership Positions in Professional SocietiesSociety for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (Board of Directors)

Place Matters: Outcomes for Planned Out-of-Hospital Births

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Reviewing Author