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Australia’s mothers and babies 2009 is the nineteenth annual report on pregnancy and childbirth in Australia providing national information on women who gave birth and the characteristics and outcomes of their babies.
In 2009, 294,540 women gave birth to 299,220 babies in Australia. There were 285,460 women who gave birth in hospitals, 6,396 women gave birth in birth centres and 863 planned homebirths. There were 2,339 fetal deaths in hospital and other facilities. There were 2 fetal deaths at homebirths. Of babies born at home in 2009, 99.8% were liveborn. There were no maternal deaths at planned homebirths in 2009.
It is probable that not all homebirths are reported to the perinatal data collections.
The mean age of mothers who gave birth at home in 2009 was 31.7 years. The proportion of mothers aged less than 20 years was 1.6%, and the proportion aged 35 years and over was 30.2%. The proportion of mothers who gave birth at home who identified as
being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin was 1.7%. The largest proportion of women who had a homebirth lived in major cities (58.6%).
Of mothers who gave birth at home, one-quarter had their first baby (25.5%), and 75% were multiparous. The method of birth was non-instrumental vaginal for 99.5% of women who gave birth at home, and the presentation was vertex for 97.9% of women who gave birth at home.
After one attempted Home birth and two successful ones in our family, having children welcomed into the world in your own peaceful environment with no intervention in the natural process, nothing beats a home birth and the nurturing ongoing support of a dedicated midwife and the lasting relationship with them that comes from sharing such an intimate and momentous moment.
And of course the food is better too!