CDC: Home births rise nearly 30 percent in U.S.

"The rate of home births in the United States has made a dramatic upturn since 2004, reversing a trend of decline throughout the 1990s, government health officials said Thursday.

Joe Brier, for USA TODAY
Some of the benefits of home birth are privacy, comfort and continuing care from someone who they feel a more personal relationship with, experts say.

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Births taking place outside of the traditional hospital setting increased 29 percent between 2004 and 2009, from 0.56 percent of all births to 0.72 percent — almost 30,000 births — according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"The increase has been driven by non-Hispanic white women," said lead report author Marian MacDorman, a statistician at CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. "For non-Hispanic white women, home births increased 36 percent."

Although it isn't clear why the rate is increasing, MacDorman thinks it has a lot to do with individual preference."

Read the rest: http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/pregnancy/story/2012-01-26/CDC-Home-births-rise-nearly-30-percent-in-US/52805556/1

This trend in the increase in home births is not surprising, really.

Just as many families are taking responsibility for their children's education by homeschooling, it makes logical sense that there would be an increase in families also choosing to take responsibility for birthing their children at home. Both the education and medical systems (throwing insurance companies in there too) have become bastions of corruption and incompetence, causing many to re-think many mainstream conventions. However, unlike the boom of homeschooling, home births will continue to be relegated to a small niche of people, mainly due to medical risk factors and to some extent finances. Home births are a great option for many families (and I would certainly do it again!) but should not be something undertaken lightly. Fortunately, most women choosing this option are doing so because of dissatisfaction with some aspects of institutional birth and usually are well education on the subject. Crossing every 't', so-to-speak.

While my experience was exactly as I had hoped for, insurance would not pay for the birth like it did for a birthing center or hospital, so CHOOSING to pay for it was something we had to consider. We opted for the health savings plan so we could at least get tax credit, but I know others whose insurance literally pushed them into a home birth. Their coverage did not cover any or much for an institutional birth so home birth was clearly the cheapest option for them. Fortunately, these same people were also great health candidates as well.

Also having had a hospital birth, the increased pressure to succumb to unnecessary protocols, while subjecting my newborn to resistant strains of bacteria made all the difference between the decision of convenience in a hospital and the safe environment of my home. In an ideal world we could have the staff of a birthing center, covered by insurance in the comfort of our homes, but doubt we'll be seeing this this side of life. It is good news that more families are peacefully protesting the current system through their actions of self-sufficiency, making the strong statement that the human quest for what is right will endure. ~ Alice