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It depends heavily on the quality of the midwife and how well they can recognize complications. If they miss something (which very likely would turn from from a

It depends heavily on the quality of the midwife and how well they can recognize complications. If they miss something (which very likely would turn from from a required test in a hospital), by the time the baby has stopped breathing, it might be too late to save them. "Planned out-of-hospital birth was associated with a higher rate of perinatal death than was planned in-hospital birth (3.9 vs. 1.8 deaths per 1000 deliveries, P=0.003; odds ratio after adjustment for maternal characteristics and medical conditions, 2.43; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37 to 4.30; adjusted risk difference, 1.52 deaths per 1000 births; 95% CI, 0.51 to 2.54). The odds for neonatal seizure were higher and the odds for admission to a neonatal intensive care unit lower with planned out-of-hospital births than with planned in-hospital birth." [1] "Midwife home births had a significantly higher total neonatal mortality risk than deliveries by hospital midwives (1.26 per 1000 births; relative risk [RR], 3.87 vs 0.32 per 1000; P < .001). Midwife home births of 41 weeks or longer (1.84 per 1000; RR, 6.76 vs 0.27 per 1000; P < .001) and midwife home births of women with a first birth (2.19 per 1000; RR, 6.74 vs 0.33 per 1000; P < .001) had significantly higher risks of total neonatal mortality than deliveries by hospital midwives. In midwife home births, neonatal mortality for first births was twice that of subsequent births (2.19 vs 0.96 per 1000; P < .001). Similar results were observed for early neonatal mortality. The excess total neonatal mortality for midwife home births compared with midwife hospital births was 9.32 per 10,000 births, and the excess early neonatal mortality was 7.89 per 10,000 births." [2] [1] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1501738 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1501738 [2] http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(14)00275-0/abstract http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(14)00275-0/abstract

ThrustVectoring 10y ago
Rounding up your first statistic slightly, that's a difference of two severe incidents per thousand births. That's a reasonably big risk factor in absolute terms, but small enough that it's not unreasonable to take in order to get other things that you care about. Like, these are "am I willing to make this tradeoff" numbers similar to choosing to drive to work daily, rather than "fuck no, go to the hospital" numbers.
- ygjb-dupe 10y ago
  Midwives don't sell themselves on the increases risks, they talk about the (largely) cosmetic benefits of home birth. Look up earlier in the thread for my comment, but anecdotally, almost every parent that I have told my story to has changed their opinion on home birth vs. hospital birth.

ThrustVectoring 10y ago

Rounding up your first statistic slightly, that's a difference of two severe incidents per thousand births. That's a reasonably big risk factor in absolute terms, but small enough that it's not unreasonable to take in order to get other things that you care about. Like, these are "am I willing to make this tradeoff" numbers similar to choosing to drive to work daily, rather than "fuck no, go to the hospital" numbers.

ygjb-dupe 10y ago
Midwives don't sell themselves on the increases risks, they talk about the (largely) cosmetic benefits of home birth. Look up earlier in the thread for my comment, but anecdotally, almost every parent that I have told my story to has changed their opinion on home birth vs. hospital birth.