HYATTSVILLE, Md., May 20 (UPI) -- U.S. home births, after declining between 1990 and 2004, increased by 20 percent from 2004 to 2008 but the number is still relatively small, researchers say.
Lead author Marian MacDorman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics says 28,357 U.S. home births occurred in 2008, representing 0.67 percent of the approximately 4.2 million births in the United States. It was the highest reported proportion since 1990, and came despite a statement by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists disapproving of home birth.
"A significantly larger number of women in 2008 have chosen to opt for a home birth experience, a development that will be of interest to practitioners and policymakers," MacDorman says in a statement.
The increase was largely driven by a 28 percent increase in home births for non-Hispanic white women, for whom more than 1 percent of all births now occur at home, MacDorman says.
The findings are published online in Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care.
