Factors associated with maternal intrapartum transfers from a freestanding birth centre in São Paulo, Brazil: A case control study

to identify factors associated with maternal intrapartum transfer from a freestanding birth centre to hospital. case-control study with retrospective data collection. cases included all 111 women transferred from a freestanding birth centre in Sao Paulo to the referral hospital, from March 2002 to December 2009. The controls were 456 women who gave birth in the birth centre during the same period who were not transferred, randomly selected with four controls for each case. data were obtained from maternal records. Factors associated with maternal intrapartum transfers were initially analysed using a χ2 test of association. Variables with p