Alaska has an OOH birth rate at 6% Medscape Medical News Out-of-Hospital Births at Highest Level Since 1975 Troy Brown, RNMarch 05, 2014 Out-of-hospital births are at their highest level since 1975, according to a federal report of births from 1990 to 2012. Still relatively rare, they have been steadily increasing since 2004, according to a March 4 report published in the NCHS Data Brief. If this increase continues, it has the potential to affect patterns of facility usage, clinician training, and resource allocation, as well as health care costs, Marian F. MacDorman, PhD, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, and colleagues write. Out-of-hospital births gradually declined from 1990 to 2004 and have been rising since then. In 2004, 0.87% of US births occurred outside a hospital. That percentage increased to 1.26% in 2011 and 1.36% in 2012, the highest level since 1975. In 2012, two-thirds (66%) of out-of-hospital births occurred at home, and another 29% occurred in a freestanding birthing center. (The remaining 5% of out-of-hospital births occurred in a clinic or doctor’s office or other location.), according to the report. Women who are healthy and have no identified risk factors can deliver in an out-of-hospital setting, James Byrne, MD, chair, Department of Ob/Gyn, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, and affiliated clinical professor, Stanford University School of Medicine, California, told Medscape Medical News. Highest Among Non-Hispanic White Women The percentage of out-of-hospital births increased for all racial and ethnic groups from 2004 to 2012, but the increase in non-Hispanic white women was responsible for most of the total increase. By 2012, 1 in 49 births to non-Hispanic white women (2.05%) took place outside a hospital. That year, the percentage was 2 to 4 times higher for non-Hispanic white women than for any other racial or ethnic group. The increase in the percentage of out-of-hospital births from 2011 to 2012 was significant for non-Hispanic white (from 1.89% to 2.05%), Hispanic (from 0.44% to 0.46%), and Asian or Pacific Islander (from 0.49% to 0.54%) women. Increases were not statistically significant for non-Hispanic black and American Indian women. Highest in Northwestern States In 2012, the highest rates (3% - 6%) of out-of-hospital births occurred in Alaska (6.0%), Montana (3.9%), Oregon (3.8%), Washington (3.4%), Idaho (3.4%), and Pennsylvania (3.1%). The next-highest rates (2% - 3%) occurred in Utah, Vermont, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Delaware. The lowest rates (
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 06:04:54 +0000
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