Having your baby at home is safe, can save health care system thousands: study
Posted August 20, 2015 9:49 am.
Last Updated August 20, 2015 9:50 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Having your baby at home can save thousands of dollars to the health care system and lead to better outcomes for mom and baby.
That’s the finding of a new study out of UBC.
The School of Population and Public Health looked at planned home births with registered midwives and found they cost the province $2,500 less than a hospital birth with a doctor.
“It saves money because they’re not in hospital and because there are no delayed complications that we’re seeing in that period up to one year in life for the baby and eight weeks post-partum for the mom,” says lead researcher Patricia Janssen.
“Looking at our outcomes, both in our previous study and in this study, there’s no excess risk associated with planned home birth for women attended by regulated midwives. We’re not seeing worse outcomes,” she adds.
She hopes the study will lead to change in hospital policies across the country and help women make the best choices for themselves.
