Women who give birth at home have the same risk of their baby dying or being taken to intensive care as women giving birth in hospital, according to a major new research project.

Researchers from the TNO institute and Maastricht and Amsterdam Universities’ medical centres looked at 500,000 births between 2000 and 2006. They found that the risk of a baby dying is seven in 10,000 for both hospital and home births.
The results are important because they will help to dispel the idea that the Netherlands’ relatively high perinatal death rate is due to the popularity of home births, the researchers said. Some 30% of Dutch mothers opt to give birth at home.
First-time mothers
According to Nos tv, this is the first time such a big research project has compared the safety of home births to hospital births. Women who gave birth in hospital for medical reasons were excluded from the survey, Nos said.
One reason for the Netherlands’ high perinatal death rate is the late age at which women have their first child. Some 45% of Dutch women have their first child after the age of 30 and 15% are at least 35.
Last May, health minister Ab Klink set up a special committee charged with reducing the baby death rate. In particular, Klink thinks improving prenatal care to immigrants and low-skilled households will bring positive results, the NRC reported at the time.