http://blindedbythelightt.blogspot.com/2011/04/10-homebirth-facts-no-ones-telling-you.html

If you want to HB or UC, I fully support this, but to say it is safer is not accurate at all, and mamas need to know this. HB in the USA is 2-3x more dangerous than in a hospital- even so, the odds are still on your side if you are properly evaluated and truly low risk.

You don’t have to believe me, for example, go look at the stats for Colorado (on the DORA site, so obviously not biased) and WI (state site) and see their high rates of mortality, up to 6-8x higher in fact!

An the USA dies good on perinatal mortality BTW, which is the proper indicator of pregnancy, labor and birth stats. It is infant mortality that we do so poorly on, but that’s babies from one month to a year, and is an indicator of pediatrics and social issues, not obstetrics.

PLEASE correct this.

1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10 are factually false. The BMJ study has been totally debunked and even the authors admitted they did not compare apples to apples (they did not compare low risk home birth to low risk hospital birth for the same year, but instead used a mish mash of stats from hospitals going back 20 years to get the numbers they wanted). When numbers from the same year are compared home birth has a death rate 3x higher. The WHO has stated there is no scientific basis for their c-section rate suggestion, it was just a number plucked out of thin air. You could say you are very likely to have a repeat section, as those account for the vast number of sections performed. Most doctors have a first time section rate in the 15-18% range. C-section infants are NOT 4x more likely to die than vaginally born infants. Any disparity in survival is almost always related to the the medical reasons for the section, not the section itself. Babies born via emergency c-section at 28 weeks obviously have a lower survival rate than term infants born vaginally. Recent numbers from Colorado and Wisconsin show babies born at home with a midwife had both a 3x higher death rate and a lower 1st year survival rate than ALL babies born in hospital, which includes every horrible health problem one can imagine.

The rest may or may not be true depending upon the circumstance and ones location and health. If you are 300 pounds, have out of control BP, GD, and smoke cigarettes you are A) more likely to give birth in a hospital, and B) more likely to have complications resulting in your or your baby’s death than low risk participants in home birth.

Nonsense like this is why people think CPMs don’t have any education or grasp on scientific information.