Scientific Research

Numerous scientific studies show that homebirth with a midwife is as safe as (and some say safer than) hospital birth.

These studies include:

CPM 2000 Study (2005)

  • In 2000, the Midwives Alliance sponsored the CPM 2000 Study, which was published in the British Medical Journal in 2005 and is the largest prospective study of planned home birth with a direct-entry midwife. It concludes that homebirth is as safe as hospital birth for low risk women, yet carries a much lower rate of medical interventions, including Cesarean section.

The Decline in Maternal Mortality in Sweden: The Role of Community Midwifery (2004)

Outcomes, safety, and resource utilization in a collaborative care birth center program compared with traditional physician-based perinatal care (2003)

Midwifery Care, social and medical risk factors, and birth outcomes in the USA (1998)

Meta-analysis of the safety of home birth (1997)

Outcomes of 11,788 planned home births attended by certified nurse-midwives. A retrospective descriptive study (1995)

The Safety of Home Birth: The Farm Study, American Journal of Public Health (1992)

Outcomes of care in birth centers. The National Birth Center Study (1989)

Neonatal Mortality in Missouri Home Births, American Journal of Public Health (1987)

One study is unsupportive. This study is flawed because it did not differentiate between planned homebirth and unplanned homebirth.

Outcomes of Planned Home Births in Washington State: 1989–1996 (2002)