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Family Wellness First

The E-newsletter for Parents to make Informed Health Care Choices Home BirthLandmark Study Shows Giving Birth at Home is Safe

“ Outcomes of planned home births with certified professional midwives: large prospective study in North America.” Kenneth C Johnson, senior epidemiologist, Betty-Anne Daviss, project manager. BMJ 2005;330:1416 (18 June).
Published online at http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7505/1416?ehom

The largest prospective study of planned home birth with a direct-entry midwife shows that homebirth is as safe as hospital birth for low risk women, yet carries a much lower rate of medical interventions, including Cesarean section.

This landmark study is reported in the latest issue of British Medical Journal, June 2005. Planning a home birth attended by a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) offers as safe an outcome for low-risk mothers and babies as does hospital birth. This study is the largest yet of its kind. The researchers used prospective data on more than 5400 planned home births in North America attended by Certified Professional Midwives during the year 2000.

Canadian researchers Kenneth Johnson and Betty-Anne Daviss studied over 5,400 low-risk pregnant women planning to birth at home in the United States and Canada in 2000. The researchers analyzed outcomes and medical interventions for planned home births, including transports to hospital care, and compared these results to the outcomes of 3,360,868 low risk hospital births. According to the British Medical Journal press release, they found:

• 88% of the women birthed at home, with 12% transferring to hospital.
• Planned home birth carried a rate of 1.7 infant deaths per 1,000 births, a rate "consistent with most North American studies of intended births out of hospital and low risk hospital births."
• There were no maternal deaths.
• Medical intervention rates of planned home births were dramatically lower than of planned hospital births, including: episiotomy rate of 2.1% (33.0% in hospital), cesarean section rate of 3.7% (19.0% in hospital), forceps rate of 1.0% (2.2% in hospital), induction rate of 9.6% (21% in hospital), and electronic fetal monitoring rate of 9.6% (84.3% in hospital).
• 97% of over 500 participants who were randomly contacted to validate birth outcomes reported that they were extremely or very satisfied with the care they received.
The Midwives Alliance of North America celebrates the publication of this groundbreaking study demonstrating the safety and satisfaction that are hallmarks of the care provided to North American women birthing at home with midwives. This study is a landmark in many ways, being by far the largest study of its kind to date; by eliminating confounding factors by distinguishing between planned and unplanned birthplace; and because of the study's prospective nature, which is able to assure accounting for all outcomes. The authors' finding that Certified Professional Midwives "achieve good outcomes among low risk women without routine use of expensive hospital interventions" challenges the unnecessary proliferation of many interventions performed routinely on women and babies in low-risk hospital births. This study provides irrefutable evidence in support of the American Public Health Association's resolution (2001) to increase access to out-of-hospital births attended by direct-entry midwives. This study supports the World Health Organization’s 1996 position: “Midwives are the most appropriate primary healthcare provider to be assigned to the care of normal birth (1996).” This study supports the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services (CIMS) 1996 statement: “Midwives attend the vast majority of births in those industrialized countries with the best perintal outcomes.” And finally, this study supports what midwives have always asserted: that planned home birth with a trained midwife is a safe, high-quality, satisfying, cost-effective choice for healthy women and their babies that results in superior outcomes. The Midwives Alliance of North American (MANA) recommends making midwifery care the gold standard in maternity care in North America. For more information about midwifery in North America, contact:
Midwives Alliance of North America Abby J. Kinne, 1st Vice President
1-888-317-8841 1stvp@mana.orginfo@mana.org

For more information about the Certified Professional Midwife credential, contact:
Debbie Pulley, Public Education and Advocacy North American Registry of Midwives
1-888-842-4784 info@narm.org

For more information about midwifery education leading to the Certified Professional Midwife credential, contact:
Mary Ann Baul, Executive Director Midwifery Education Accreditation Council
1-928-214-0997 info@meacschools.org

For more information about midwives & homebirth from a consumer perspective, contact:
Susan Hodges, President Citizens for Midwifery
(706) 549-7023 susan@cfmidwifery.org

Visit these links for additional benefits of natural birthing and risks associated with technology:

Natural birthing: http://www.icpa4kids.org/research/pregnancy/natural.htm
Technology and birthing: http://www.icpa4kids.org/research/pregnancy/technology.htm
Avoiding the Rise and Risks of Operative Delivery: http://www.icpa4kids.org/wellness/0008.htm

Stay Informed with Pathways Magazine

The current Pathways full color, quarterly magazine is now available. Here are some excerpts from this edition's articles:

The feature article gives a healthy perspective to the role of infection. The following excerpts reveal some of Dr. Philip's important message about letting "illness" run its course and refraining from treating symptoms for the overall benefit of the person:

"Children who are able to have their normal childhood healing crises consisting of fevers and discharges, thereby exe rcise and build their immune systems to be strong and resilient, which is of great benefit for their overall health."

"If we make our housekeeper stop her hectic cleaning in order to have some peace, we will have to put up with an untidy house. An untidy house and an inactive housekeeper are conditions which in the short run lead to a return of flies and ants, and in the long run lead to chronic disease and cancer. This is why I’ve been saying for fourteen years that an important way to prevent cancer is to appreciate the great wisdom and benefit of our occasional inflammatory house cleanings and to refrain from obstructing them unnecessarily with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs."

The Outside In Child
Claudia Anrig, D.C.

The Wellness- Lifestyle Article continues with this same theme:

"However, lost is the wisdom that our body has an inborn intelligence to heal and self- regulate. Our culture has evolved to a chemical consciousness, assuming that all our ills should be treated. Could it be possible that we could trust our body’s inborn intelligence to know what to do?

Our evolved society leaves little room for time; time for balance, for rest and quietness, or to be sick and heal ourselves. "

Engineered Foods: A Threat to Children

The Nutritional Section reveals startling data about our foods: There are about 40 varieties of genetically engineered crop approved for marketing in the U.S. As a result, 60-70% of the foods on your grocery shelves contain genetically engineered (GE) components.

Genetically engineered foods contain substances that have never been a part of the human food supply. They are not subjected to rigorous pre-market safety testing. And THEY ARE NOT LABELED.

Family Wellness First comes to you as a courtesy of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association.

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