Many Women Choosing to Deliver Babies in Homes and Not Hospitals

The number of women opting to have their baby in their own homes has been steadily growing up with latest figures showing that home births have increased by 20 percent over the last four years. Home births had been in a decline during the period between 1990 and 2004 but natural birth with low intervention has slowly increased in its popularity, especially among white women. According to the figures released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 98 white women opted for home birth compared to 1 in 357 among black women and 1 in 500 among Hispanics in 2008.

Overall, one in 143 women opted for home birth in 2008 compared to one in 179 in 2004. Around 27 states in the country showed increase in home births with Montana, Vermont and Oregon leading the way with one in 50 mothers opting for home birth in those states.

Lead author of the study, Marian MacDorman said that the rising popularity of home births can be attributed to white women. “I think there's more of a natural birth subculture going on with white women — an interest in a low-intervention birth in a familiar setting”, MacDorman said.

Source-Medindia