Doctors warn against encouraging home births

British Health Minister Patricia Hewitt

A New Zealand doctors' group has warned against following a British move to encourage more home births.

The British Government will tell all doctors to offer pregnant women the chance to deliver at home with a midwife - a historic shift in the politics of childbirth and one intended to "demedicalise" pregnancy.

Britain has commissioned research to support the case for homebirths.

The Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, is to challenge the assumption that the safest place to give birth is in hospital and that home births can be dangerous.

In Britain, just over 2 per cent of births are at home - compared with 3 to 5 per cent in NZ according to the Health Ministry and about 7 per cent according to Home Birth Aotearoa.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists yesterday said the British had approached the issue in a "ludicrous and dangerous" manner.

"They are commissioning research to support the case for home births," said the college's New Zealand branch chairman, Dr Alec Ekeroma.

"Research is not meant to support a prior view; rather it is supposed to seek evidence to support practice that is safe for women and their babies."

Dr Ekeroma said a home birth should only be considered if it was a woman's second or subsequent birth and she was low-risk.

Even then, a home birth should be planned only if the woman could be transferred quickly to hospital if needed.

This was because 30 per cent of low-risk cases became high-risk during labour and delivery.

Dr Ekeroma said recent statistics would have to be published showing good home birth outcomes if the college was to support having more babies born at home.

Health Minister Pete Hodgson says NZ women choose home birth as much as they want to.