Selected perinatal outcomes associated with planned home births in the United States

Objective More women are planning home birth in the United States, although safety remains unclear. We examined outcomes that were associated with planned home compared with hospital births. Study Design We conducted a retrospective cohort study of term singleton live births in 2008 in the United States. Deliveries were categorized by location: hospitals or intended home births. Neonatal outcomes were compared with the use of the χ2 test and multivariable logistic regression. Results There were 2,081,753 births that met the study criteria. Of these, 12,039 births (0.58%) were planned home births. More planned home births had 5-minute Apgar score