member_Jules

Hi Anna, Thank you for your

Hi Anna, Thank you for your insightful comments. As you know from reading the blog, the statement about a 2 to 3 fold increased risk in home birth vs. hospital birth came from a spokesman from the The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. They also stated that the "absolute risk of planned home births is low" while citing "published medical evidence shows it does carry a two- to three-fold increase in the risk of newborn death compared with planned hospital births." We do not know to what published medical evidence they refer. Certainly there are many successful home births. We have to agree with you, though that every woman has to make her own informed decision and there is indeed no way to know if there would have been a different outcome for Ms. Lovell had she delivered in a hospital. Again, thank you for commenting. It is these types of comments that open a healthy dialogue.

I would like to see some

I would like to see some statistics to back up the statement that there is a 2 to 3 fold increased risk in a home birth versus a hospital birth. In a normal healthy pregnancy of a normal and healthy woman, I'm not sure that I buy that. It's the snowball effect of medical interventions that increases risks of complications during childbirth. Certainly, home birth isn't for everyone and every woman should do what she is most comfortable with, for some that is birthing at home and for others it's being in the hospital. What happened to Caroline Lovell is tragically sad, but there is no way to know if the ending would have been different had she been at the hospital to begin with.