# Groundbreaking US Study Finds Homebirth Safe for Low-Risk Women



## Melanie Mayo (Apr 1, 2010)

Quote:


> The largest study ever conducted in the United States of planned home births found that 93.6 percent of the 16,924 women in the study had spontaneous vaginal births, and only 5.2 percent required a cesarean section for delivery.
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> "Given our findings, especially in light of other observational studies published in the last decade, I think it's time to start shifting the discourse around home birth in this country," said Melissa Cheyney, a medical anthropologist at Oregon State University and lead author on the study. "We need to start focusing on who might be a good candidate for a home or birth center birth and stop debating whether women should be allowed to choose these options.
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> "Home birth is not for every woman and risk factors need to be weighed," she added. "But the evidence strongly suggests that a healthy woman with an uncomplicated delivery and a single, term baby in a head-down position can safely give birth outside the hospital."


*Read more here and here. *


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