Home birth figures remain static across UK

January 5, 2010 at 4:53 pm Leave a comment

Across the UK in 2008, 21, 211 (2.7%) of all births (787,032) took place at home, compared with 20,548 (2.68%) in 2007. This shows no rise in the home birth rate.

In England 18,933 women (2.8%) had a home birth, from 665,779 births.

Wales has the highest proportion of women having home births, 1,314 (3.7%) from 35,256 births.

In Scotland, 881 women (1.5%) had a home birth, from 60,366 births. And in Northern Ireland, 83 women (0.3%) had home births from 25,631 births.

In many areas community midwifery services are not being developed to increase access to home births and birth centres, and women are not being given balanced information to make well-informed choices. Low midwifery staffing levels mean home birth is either not being offered, or withdrawn at short notice. Every trust and board should ensure that choice of place of birth is available to all women.

Local administrative areas with highest and lowest home birth rates include:-

	HIGHEST	LOWEST
England	South Hamms – 13.6%	Alnwick 0.0%
Scotland	East Lothian – 5.0%	Eilean Siar – 0.4%
Wales	Bridgend – 9.5%	Merthyr Tydfil – 1.3%

New data provided by the Office of National Statistics, The General Register Office for Scotland and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Statistics analysed by BirthChoiceUK – available at www.BirthChoiceUK.com/HomeBirthRates.htm