They are data from the United States, but moving in the world of babies, pregnant women and their deliveries, surely there is also a similar trend here: home births have increased 20 percent in four years.
This conclusion is reached thanks to the data available between 2004 and 2008 and, although the increase seems important, the total number of home births is really low compared to the number of children born in a hospital.
To be exact, in 2008 28,357 births were registered at the mother's home and 4.2 million births across the country (come on, home births account for about 0.68% of all births).
White non-Hispanic women are the "culprits"
Looking at the data of women who gave birth at home in 2004 and those who did it in 2008, it is observed that the increase is due, in large part, to white non-Hispanic women They have marked an increase of 28 percent.
Among black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American women, the increase has been very small or in some cases virtually nil.
The reason: to be in a natural environment surrounded by the family
The same article explains that one of the reasons why some women decide to give birth at home instead of in a hospital is because they want their baby to be born in a natural environment and because they want to be surrounded by family and friends.
Another reason would be for culture or religion or even the cost of bringing a baby into the world for a family, since giving birth at home costs a third of what it would cost to do so in a hospital.
Finally it is explained that many women also decide to do it at home to avoid certain obstetric procedures such as induction or excessive instrumentalization.
Marian F. MacDorman of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and author of the study says:
Obviously some women will need these procedures even during a home birth, and a certain proportion of women who start labor at home should be taken to the hospital for those treatments. The truth is that women who plan for home birth are those who have a lower rate of these procedures.
With regard to the increase in home births in non-Hispanic white women, which has not occurred in the same way in the rest of women, the study authors explain that they do not know what the reasons for such increase are.
