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An Increase in Home Births After 15 Year Decline
ABC News & NPR Report Home Birth Increase
Over the course of the first week in March, the CDC released statistics that reported a growth in the number of women choosing home birth. Home birth had been steadily declining for 15 years before showing a 3.5 increase in 2004.
ABC News, NPR and several other news sources reported the breaking news. Home birth and alternative birth choice advocates celebrated the jump.
Is Home Birth Making a Come-Back?
The number of women birthing at home has dropped considerably from 50 years ago when 44% of women home birthed.
Today, the number of women choosing home birth is less than 1%.
The statistics released by the CDC this past week show an increase of home births in the years, showing 46,371 home births between 2003-2004 and 49,438 from '05-'06.
Home birth advocates anticipate these numbers have continued to rise since the release of the movie, The Business of Being Born, by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein released in 2008.
Seventy eight years ago, my grandmother was born at home - as were her three sisters. When she gave birth to my mother 50 years ago, she was "knocked out" during her birth. A year ago, I gave birth to a healthy girl at home, which begs the question, is home birth making a come-back?
Out-of-Hospital Midwives in High Demand
The same week as the statistics concerning an increase in home birth were provided, the CDC reported a similar finding - an increase in demand for out-of-hospital midwives.
"...released this week showed a 5% increase in demand for out-of-hospital midwives births in 2005..." continued on to say, "...seventeen states showed an increase of %10 percent or more."
Factors for this increase in demand include reduced cost, religious, personal reasons, cultural practices and a safe and private place to birth.
Eugene Declercq, a professor of community health sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, says, "the mothers who are having these home births are not crazy, unaware people. They plan carefully, they think about this all the time."