Abstract
Background
Home births provide women a birth choice where they may feel more comfortable and
confident in their ability to give birth.
Problem
Most women in Victoria do not have publicly funded access to appropriately trained
health professionals if they choose to give birth at home.
Methods
This paper describes the process of setting up a publicly funded home birth service
and provide details of description of the set up and governance. We also report outcomes
over 9 years with respect to parity, transfer to hospital, adverse maternal and neonatal
outcomes.
Results
Of the 191 women who were still booked into the home birth program at 36 weeks gestation,
148 (77.5%) women gave birth at home and 43 (22.5%) women were transferred into the
hospital. The overall rate of vaginal birth was also high among the women in the home
birth program, 185 (96.9%) with no added complications ascribed to home births. Such
as severe perineal trauma [n = 1] 0.6% PPH [n = 4] 2.7%, Apgar score less than 7 at 5 min [n = 0] admissions post home birth to special care nursery [n = 2] 1.35%.
Discussion
This unique study provides a detailed road map of setting up a home birth practice
to facilitate other institutions keen to build a publicly funded home birth service.
The birth outcome data was found to be consistent with other Australian studies on
low risk home births.
Conclusion
Well-designed home birth programs following best clinical practices and procedures
can provide a safe birthing option for low risk women.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 24, 2019
Accepted:
September 25,
2019
Received in revised form:
September 24,
2019
Received:
January 26,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
