Home Birth Death in Hawaii

A newborn died last Wednesday as the result of an attempted home birth in Hawaii. From the Hawaii Tribune Herald: 

"One obstetrician said that Wednesday’s death had taken a toll on hospital staff, especially because of the fact that it was another in a disturbing trend."

“'This is an ongoing problem here. … Within the last five years, I’ve seen at least three dead babies from home births, and just a week ago I took care of a patient who nearly bled to death after a home birth,' the doctor said. 'All of the obstetricians here have had similar experiences. And in all of these situations, the standard of care of obstetric practice was not followed by the practitioners. I believe that all of these bad outcomes could have been avoided if good practice patterns were actually followed.'”

"The obstetrician said that state law does not require licensing and oversight of midwives and other practitioners that aid in the home birthing of babies, which can lead to dangerous situations."

“'You need a license to be a plumber, you need a license to be a carpenter, you need a license to cut hair in the state of Hawaii. You do not need a license to deliver a baby,' the doctor said. 'I have had multiple occasions where babies died, and did not need to die, and there are no repercussions for the people who misled these patients.'”

Read the full article here: Hawaii Tribune Herald: Death of newborn rekindles home-birth debate

The Business of Being Born

Many women first become interested in home birth after watching the movie "The Business of Being Born." Unfortunately, it's full of misinformation and misleading statements.

These posts do a good job of debunking the misinformation found in the film:

American Home Birth: The Business of Being Misled

and

Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 1
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 2
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 3
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 4
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 5
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 6
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 7
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 8
Debunking the Business of Being Born: Part 9

Doesn't the US have a high infant mortality rate?

Home birth advocates often say that hospital birth is clearly unsafe, as the "United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world."

The problem is that infant mortality is not how you measure obstetric safety.

Infant mortality includes all deaths from birth to one year of age. This makes it a measure of pediatric care, not the safety of obstetric care.

According to the WHO, the best measure of obstetric care (care during pregnancy, labor, and delivery) is perinatal mortality, which it defines as deaths from the 22nd week of pregnancy to the 7th day of life. And the United States has one of the best perinatal mortality rates in the world, lower than Denmark, the UK, and the Netherlands.

So does the United States really have one of the worst obstetric systems in the world? No. It has one of the best.
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