title: Birth setting for low-risk pregnancies. An analysis of the current literature.
abstract: This article reviews the literature on birth settings for women with low-risk pregnancies. Methodological issues of the existing research include nonrandom designs, small samples, selection differences, data limitation, and confounding bias. Studies for four birth sites are summarized: the home, freestanding birth centers, in-hospital birthing centers or birthing rooms, and traditional hospital settings. Despite the methodological limitations, nontraditional birth settings present advantages for low-risk women as compared with traditional hospital settings: lower costs for maternity care, and lower use of childbirth procedures, without significant differences in perinatal mortality.
authors.affiliation: University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Albers
authors.forename: V L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Katz
mesh_terms: D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D003696:Delivery Rooms / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006700:Home Childbirth / Q000401:mortality / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012307:Risk Factors