Opinions about ACOG study

[punky123]

I just read the following short article and am wondering what others here think.

http://www.acog.org/from_home/public...07-31-02-3.cfm

This is the first time I've come across any information that stated that homebirths were more dangerous than hospital births. I'm very cynical about this report. Part of me thinks it is very self-serving for obstetricians to prove that it's safer for women to have births in a hospital.

Does anyone have other statistics that disprove these findings?

I think it pays to be careful no matter what your choice, homebirth or hospital. Making sure that your caregivers are on the same level and that they won't harm you through their own hubris.

Sorry if this has already been discussed elsewhere.

Thanks for reading.

[Iguanavere]

That is pretty interesting - you may want to also post this at the Midwives/Doula's board for their input. I don't understand statistics, so I can't really comment on their reporting or methodology - but that would be where I would want to look for problems with the study.

[melamama]

I remember there being a lot of discussion about this when it came out last summer. I have pregnancy brain now, but do know that there were some serious methodolocal problems with this study. One point being that the researchers gathered data from birth certificates afterwords. This means that it was left up to the person filling out the form what was recorded--for instance if you never planned a homebirth but had a fast labor and the gas man helped you deliver, you were listed as a homebirth.

You may want to do a search from that month because I remember that there were many well thought out criticisms of that study. As you mentioned I sort of think it was tailored to the target audience (ACOG).

[cottonwood]

Hi Punky, welcome to the Mothering forums.

Here are some more comments on the study:

http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...ighlight=study

[punky123]

Thanks for the link

Thanks for the info and the link. That was exactly what I was looking for.