A new CDC report looks at the trends of home birth from 1990-2009. While home birth was relatively stable from 1990-2004, after that there was a 29% rise in the number of home births, though still a very low number. You’re more likely to have a home birth if:
- Non-hispanic white woman
- Over 35
- Married
Interestingly enough 33% are listed as being attended by “other.” This is dad, mom, EMT, etc. I wonder if this is in part by midwives not wanting to be listed on the birth certificates.
While many like to cite the rise in the home birth rate as being from Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein’s Business of Being Born, it wasn’t released until May 2008. (See trailer below.) So what’s your take? Why do you think the rates of home birth are increasing?
MacDorman MF, Mathews TJ, Declercq E. Home births in the United States, 1990– 2009. NCHS data brief, no 84. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2012.
I think part of it is the “over 35″ piece. Because women who are pregnant over 35 are deemed “advanced maternal age” and regarded as an emergency-in-the-making by some practitioners, these women are choosing to seek out a more supportive birth environment if they have the resources to do so. I also think enough women are now hearing the stories of friends/sisters/co-workers who had traumatic medicalized births and are seeking out alternatives to that system.