Oregon study finds higher death rate for babies born outside the hospital

By Gene Emery (Reuters Health) – A study comparing the risks of in-hospital and out-of-hospital births in Oregon finds the odds of infant death are more than two times higher for planned out-of-hospital births. The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine differ from those of a recent, larger Canadian study that found newborn death rates were not higher among women who gave birth at home (see Reuters Health story of December 21, 2015, here: http://reut.rs/1SmV3wT). “The findings are different, but I think that, on a system level, they paint a similar picture,” said the chief author of the Oregon study, Jonathan Snowden of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland.

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Oregon study finds higher death rate for babies born outside the hospital