Home births more 'cost effective', says Oxford study

[Saffron]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17769929

Planned births at home and in midwifery units are more cost-effective than giving birth in hospital, particularly for women who have given birth before, University of Oxford research suggests.

For women having their first baby, however, planned home birth was more risky for the baby but still the most cost-effective option.

BMJ here: http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2292

[dulwichgirl2]

No doubt they are cheaper. Women should choose the safest not the cheapest option though, surely?

[susyp]

Glad it took a top academic to work that out ....

susypx

[Kes]

One criticism of the study though - it didn't look at the cost of pre-natal care, it seems that you get a lot more care from a smaller team of midwives if you opt for a home birth, this presumably would add to the costs. My NCT teacher advised my whole class to claim we wanted home births even if we didn't just so we'd get better antenatal care (we could pretend to chicken out at the last minute if we really wanted to go to hospital!)

[sillywoman]

dulwichgirl2, the recently published and very comprehensive 'Birthplace study' results find that for a low risk woman having a second or subsequent baby a planned homebirth is a safer option than having her baby in an obstetric unit, and as safe as the safest option - a midwife led unit. Sadly the safest option for birth - midwife led unit- is not one that's to be made available to the women of ED, unless they travel to central London or to Lewisham. And it's not looking likely that it will be available any time soon in the future either. :(

[Saffron]

I thought it was interesting that the BBC article chose to emphasize the homebirth aspect (hence the title), but that the research itself emphasized also the importance of midwife-led birthing units. It seemed to me that the BBC article was fishing for an eye-catching or contraversial headline, a bit at the expense of emphasizing the importance of midwife-led units (or the lack thereof).