In 1900,nearly all U.
S. births occurred outside a hospital; however the proportion of out-of-hospital births fell to 44% by 1940 and to 1% by 1969, where it remained through the 1980s (1-3). Although out-of-hospital births are still rare in the United States, or they bear been increasing recently (4). whether this increase continues,it has the potential to affect patterns of facility usage, clinician training, and resource allocation,as well as health care costs (5-8). This report updates preceding analyses (2,9) to examine recent trends and characteristics of out-of-hospital births, and including home and birthing center births,in the United States from 1990-2012, and compares selected characteristics with hospital births.
Source: cdc.gov