Saraswathi Vedam's deeply disingenuous annotated guide to the homebirth literature

I never cease to be amazed at the pervasive contempt in which professional homebirth advocates hold their own followers.Contempt for the intelligence of their followers: they are confident that followers can be easily tricked with long lists of citations; Contempt for their unfamiliarity with forms of scientific literature: they are confident that their followers will believe something is a scientific...

No wonder Colorado homebirth midwives hid their 2010 death rates

Each year, licensed Colorado homebirth midwives (certified professional midwives, CPMs) are mandated to report their safety statistics. As I detailed in a post about the 2009 statistics, in every year since homebirth midwives were first licensed in 2006, the midwives had a death rate that exceeded the state as a whole (including all races, all gestational ages, all pregnancy complications, all pre-existing...

Uterine rupture: how much time do you have to save the baby?

A new study to be published in the April issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology demonstrates that in the wake of a uterine rupture, providers have no more than 18 minutes to deliver the baby before the baby experiences significant hypoxia, and only 30 minutes until the baby suffers major neurological impairment.The paper, entitled Uterine Rupture With Attempted Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Delivery: Decision-to-Delivery...

International comparisons of neonatal and infant mortality are invalid

The annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine is currently being held in Dallas. Two different papers will be presented today, both of which highlight the increased risks of homebirth.The first is Neonatal outcomes associated with intended place of birth: birth centers and home birth compared to hospitals (abstract 65) by Cheng, Snowden and Caughey. According to the authors:This was...

Two new studies show increased risk of death, serious complications at homebirth

The annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine is currently being held in Dallas. Two different papers will be presented today, both of which highlight the increased risks of homebirth.The first is Neonatal outcomes associated with intended place of birth: birth centers and home birth compared to hospitals (abstract 65) by Cheng, Snowden and Caughey. According to the authors:This was...

The death toll of California homebirth

The state of California has released a comprehensive summary of outcomes of California licensed homebirth midwives of the year 2010. The reports makes for disturbing reading. Homebirths exceed low risk (and sometimes high risk) hospital birth on almost every negative outcome including deaths.Before we look at the outcomes, let's look at whether California licensed homebirth midwives comply with their...

Near-miss maternal mortality

Maternal mortality has dropped 99% in the past 100 years. A maternal death is now, fortunately, a rare event. Attention, therefore, is shifting to maternal morbidity, in particular, life-threatening morbidity. The results of a new study are instructive.Near-Miss Maternal Mortality: Cardiac Dysfunction as the Principal Cause of Obstetric Intensive Care Unit Admissions by Small et al. will be published...

2011 ends with 5th North Carolina homebirth death

Sadly, 2011 ended with an appalling 5th confirmed homebirth death in North Carolina. The fourth homebirth death had actually occurred several days later. The death was, as is typically the case with homebirth deaths, needless, senseless, utterly predictable, and totally preventable.The mother is a doula and had a waterbirth. The baby was a breech with a trapped head. The mother transferred to the...

Latest CDC data: homebirth killing more babies than ever

In 2003 the US standard birth certificate form was revised to include place of birth and attendant at birth. That makes it possible to compare neonatal death rates at home vs. in the hospital. The first data set (2003-2004) showed that homebirth had triple the rate of neonatal mortality as comparable risk hospital birth. The most recent data set shows was recently released by CDC Wonder and the results...

The UK Birthplace Study: homebirth increases the risk of death

The largest, most comprehensive study ever done of homebirth has released its results and there's nothing left to argue about: homebirth increases the risk of perinatal death.The Birthplace Study, a large multi-year study, was designed to address the safety of place of birth by controlling for the many factors that had not been handled properly in other studies. The study looked at intended place...

New Zealand study tries to buy increased homebirth death rate

No wonder Melissa Cheyney refuses to release the death rate of Oregon homebirths.In August, I wrote:The minutes of the August 5, 2010 Board meeting reports that the state of Oregon asked for the ability to retrieve information on Oregon midwives from the database:"Cheyney stated that the MANA board's official policy is to give state-level accounts to professional organizations as a tool to evaluate...

How many babies died at the hands of Oregon homebirth midwives?

No wonder Melissa Cheyney refuses to release the death rate of Oregon homebirths.In August, I wrote:The minutes of the August 5, 2010 Board meeting reports that the state of Oregon asked for the ability to retrieve information on Oregon midwives from the database:"Cheyney stated that the MANA board's official policy is to give state-level accounts to professional organizations as a tool to evaluate...

Reducing early elective delivery leads to more deaths

You could have seen this coming.In a flourish of righteous zeal, the March of Dimes went on record strongly opposing early elective delivery before 39 weeks gestation. They railed against the increase in NICU admissions; they railed against the increase in C-sections; and they railed against the increase in costs. What they inexplicably failed to take into account was the inevitable increase in stillbirths.When...

New Dutch study raises troubling questions about the safety of homebirth

A new Dutch study of homebirth appears in the forthcoming issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. Planned Home Compared With Planned Hospital Births in The Netherlands by van der Kooy et al. is large, comprehensive and raises troubling questions about the safety of homebirth.The large amount of data is analyzed in a bewildering number of ways, but the bottom line is that homebirth is safe...

Missouri: homebirth has a 20 fold increase in intrapartum death

The homebirth statistics keep on coming and they keep demonstrating the same thing: homebirth increases the risk of death.I've written extensively about the appalling rate of perinatal death at the hands of licensed midwives in Colorado, and, of course, the overall US statistics show that homebirth with a direct entry midwife triples the neonatal death rate. The latest data comes from Missouri and...

S. Australia: Homebirth death rate 17 times higher than comparable risk hospital birth

The state of South Australia, which includes the city of Adelaide, has published it's perinatal mortality rates. The data shows that planned homebirth has a perinatal mortality rate more than 17X higher than comparable risk hospital birth.The report, Pregnancy Outcome in South Australia 2009, is a dry recitation of birth statistics without editorial comment. The statistics are analyzed in every possible...

US newborn death rate tied with Qatar? Not exactly.

Professional homebirth advocates routinely trick their followers by preying on their gullibility and lack of basic knowledge of science, statistics and obstetrics.Consider the following statements:Ricki Lake:The fact that we have the second-worst infant mortality rate in the developed world is a statistic that I think people need to know about.Ina May Gaskin:We have the highest maternal health care...