HOME BIRTH IN THE UNITED-STATES, 1989-1992 - A LONGITUDINAL DESCRIPTIVE REPORT OF NATIONAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE DATA

This study was conducted to profile home birth in the United States fr om 1989 to 1992 using two birth certificate data sources from the Nata lity Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Analy sis included published and unpublished descriptive tables about all U. S. home births from 1989 to 1992, and a subset of the 82,210 U.S. home births from 1989 to 1991 that were drawn from NCHS national birth cer tificate data tapes. Results indicated that less than one-third of rep orted home births were attended by nurse-midwives or physicians. Disti nct regional patterns in the frequency of home births were observed, w ith higher concentrations in the southwestern and western states. When compared with the average childbearing woman in the United States, mo thers who gave birth at home were more likely to be older, have fewer years of education, be married, and be white; they were also more like ly to be of higher parity and to receive less prenatal care. Home birt h mothers were less likely than average to smoke or drink alcohol pren atally, to have a prenatal medical risk condition or an obstetric comp lication, or to receive certain prenatal tests. The outcomes of newbor ns born at home compared favorably to the national average during the same period. Several findings varied considerably by race or ethnicity of the mother.