New Cochrane Review

There's a new Cochrane review out that lends credence to our arguments that homebirth is as safe or safer than hospital birth when integrated in the mainstream maternity system.

From the plain language summary: It seems increasingly clear that impatience and easy
access to many medical procedures at hospital may lead to increased levels of intervention which in turn may lead to new interventions and finally to unnecessary complications. In a planned home birth assisted by an experienced midwife with collaborative medical back up in case transfer should be necessary these drawbacks are avoided while the benefit of access to medical intervention when needed is maintained. Increasingly better observational studies suggest that planned hospital birth is not any safer than planned home birth assisted by an experienced midwife with collaborative medical back up, but may lead to more interventions and more complications.