Birth Setting

New Largest Ever Waterbirth Study

Click here to learn more about the study. Click here to request a PDF of the full paper.

Planned Home VBAC in the United States, 2004-2009: Outcomes, Maternity Care Practices, and Implications for Shared Decision Making.

Abstract BACKGROUND: In the United States, the number of planned home vaginal births after cesarean (VBACs) has increased. This study describes the maternal and neonatal outcomes for women who planned a VBAC at home with midwives who were contributing data to the Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project 2.0…

Home birth is unsafe: AGAINST: Safe for whom?

ABSTRACT First, we question the underlying premise of this debate: that hospital birth is inherently safe. There has been much discussion regarding the ‘cascade of interventions’ that has become ubiquitous, at least in US hospital settings, and which culminates in caesareans—many of which are medically unnecessary—for over 30% of labouring…

Of Missing Voices and the Obstetric Imaginary

Abstract In this commentary, I respond to an ethical analysis of a case study, reported by Jankowski and Burcher, in which a woman gives birth to an infant with a known heart anomaly of unknown severity, at home, attended by a midwife. Jankowski and Burcher argue that the midwife who…

Transfer from Planned Home Birth to Hospital: Improving Inter-professional Collaboration

Abstract Women’s heightened interest in choice of birthplace and increased rates of planned home birth in the United States have been well documented, yet there remains significant public and professional debate about the ethics of planned home birth in jurisdictions where care is not clearly integrated across birth settings. Simultaneously,…

Homebirth Transfers in the United States: Narratives of Risk, Fear and Mutual Accommodation

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the contested space of home-to-hospital transfers that occur during labor or in the immediate postpartum period, as a means of identifying the mechanisms that maintain philosophical and practice divides between homebirth midwives and hospital-based clinicians in the United States. Using data…

The Crusade Against Home Birth

Abstract A recent study by Grunebaum et al examined the relationship between place of birth and adverse neonatal outcomes (Apgar of 0 at 5 minutes, and neonatal seizures or serious neurologic dysfunction—hereafter referred to as neonatal seizures) as reported in birth certificate data from 2007 to 2010 for term newborns (n = 13,891,274)…

Development and validation of a national data registry for midwife-led births: the Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project 2.0 dataset.

Abstract INTRODUCTION: In 2004, the Midwives Alliance of North America’s (MANA’s) Division of Research developed a Web-based data collection system to gather information on the practices and outcomes associated with midwife-led births in the United States. This system, called the MANA Statistics Project (MANA Stats), grew out of a widely…

Reinscribing the Birthing Body: Homebirth as Ritual Performance

Abstract In this article, I examine the clinical practices engaged in by U.S. homebirth midwives and their clients from the beginning of pregnancy through to the immediate postpartum period, deconstructing them for their symbolic and ritual content. Using data collected from open‐ended, semistructured interviews and intensive participant‐observation, I describe the…

Born at home: The biological, cultural and political dimensions of maternity care in the United States (Book)

Synopsis This is a book about women who choose to give birth at home against the wishes and indeed the interests of established medicine. It focuses on conditions in the US. It places the issue within the context of the continuing health care crisis in this country and poses surprisingly…

Narratives of Risk: Speaking Across the Hospital/ Homebirth Divide

Find the full study Open source. To access the full article, click here Citation Cheyney, M. and C. Everson. (2009). Narratives of Risk: Speaking Across the Hospital/ Homebirth Divide. Anthropology Newsletter 50(3): 7-8.