Labor, delivery, postpartum

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Home birth, place of delivery

Australia

• Australasian Emergency Care
  • First Nations women's experiences of out-of-hospital childbirth: Insights for enhancing paramedic practice - A scoping review [2025]

• Australian College of Midwives
  • Position statement for planned birth at home [2019]

• BMC Health Services Research
  • Modelling the cost of place of birth: a pathway analysis [2021]

• BMJ Open
  • Maternal and perinatal outcomes by planned place of birth in Australia 2000 – 2012: a linked population data study [2019]

• NSW Health
  • Public Homebirth Services in NSW

• Queensland Health
  • Publicly funded homebirth
  • Implementing a publicly funded homebirth program – Guidance for Queensland Hospitals and Health Services

• SA Health
  • Planned Birth at Home Clinical Directive

• WA Health
  • Public Home Birth Standard

Australia, New Zealand

• Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
  • Home Births [2023]

Bangladesh

• BioMed Research International
  • Determinants and Trends of Health Facility Delivery in Bangladesh: A Hierarchical Modeling Approach [2022]

• BMJ Open
  • Trends and patterns of inequalities in using facility delivery among reproductive-age women in Bangladesh: a decomposition analysis of 2007-2017 Demographic and Health Survey data [2022]

• International Journal of Clinical Practice
  • Individual and Community-Level Determinants of Institutional Delivery Services among Women in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study [2022]

• PLoS ONE
  • Mapping the prevalence and covariates associated with home delivery in Bangladesh: A multilevel regression analysis [2024]
  • Socioeconomic inequalities in utilizing facility delivery in Bangladesh: A decomposition analysis using nationwide 2017-2018 demographic and health survey data [2022]
  • Factors associated with the utilization of institutional delivery services in Bangladesh [2017]

Benin

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Individual and community-level factors associated with home birth: a mixed effects regression analysis of 2017–2018 Benin demographic and health survey [2021]

Canada

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • The Canadian birth place study: examining maternity care provider attitudes and interprofessional conflict around planned home birth [2014]

• Perinatal Services BC
  • Planned Place of Birth

• Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada
  • Statement on Planned Homebirth [2019]

Czech Republic

• Central European Journal of Public Health
  • Complications of planned home births in the Czech Republic between 2016-2017 [2020]

East Africa

• Frontiers in Public Health
  • Predicting place of delivery choice among childbearing women in East Africa: a comparative analysis of advanced machine learning techniques [2024]

• Italian Journal of Pediatrics
  • Pooled prevalence and determinants of skilled birth attendant delivery in East Africa countries: a multilevel analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys [2020]

• PLoS ONE
  • Pooled prevalence and associated factors of health facility delivery in East Africa: Mixed-effect logistic regression analysis [2021]

Ethiopia

• BioMed Research International
  • Prevalence of Women's Home Birth Preferences and Its Associated Factors in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis [2024]

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Predictors of institutional delivery service utilization in Ethiopia: an umbrella review [2025]
  • Determinants of place birth: a multinomial logistic regression and spatial analysis of the Ethiopian mini demographic and health survey data, 2019 [2022]
  • Spatio-temporal distribution and associated factors of home delivery in Ethiopia. Further multilevel and spatial analysis of Ethiopian demographic and health surveys 2005–2016 [2020]
  • Spatial clustering and determinants of home birth after at least one antenatal care visit in Ethiopia: Ethiopian demographic and health survey 2016 perspective [2020]
  • Institutional delivery service utilization and associated factors in Ethiopia: a systematic review and META-analysis [2020]

• BMC Women's Health
  • Spatial distribution and associated factors of dropout from health facility delivery after antenatal booking in Ethiopia: a multi-level analysis [2023]

• BMJ Open
  • Determinants of traditional birth attendant utilisation among reproductive age women in Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis of the 2019 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey [2024]
  • Trends and determinants of home delivery in Ethiopia: further multivariate decomposition analysis of 2005–2016 Ethiopian Demographic Health Surveys [2020]

• Frontiers in Public Health
  • Home delivery among pregnant women with ANC follow-up in Ethiopia; Evidence from the 2019 Ethiopia mini demographic and health survey [2022]

• Global Health Action
  • Factors associated with home delivery preference among pregnant women in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study [2022]

• International Journal of Women's Health
  • Why Women in Ethiopia Give Birth at Home? A Systematic Review of Literature [2021]
  • Factors associated with institutional delivery service utilization in Ethiopia [2016]

• Pan African Medical Journal
  • Predictors associated with giving birth at home among women in Ethiopia [2025]

• PeerJ
  • The nexus between geographical distance and institutional delivery trends in Ethiopia: evidence from nationwide surveys [2024]

• PLoS ONE
  • Trend of home birth and its associated factors in Ethiopia during COVID-19 and social crisis (2019-2023) [2025]
  • Using geographically weighted regression analysis to assess predictors of home birth hot spots in Ethiopia [2023]
  • Spatial pattern and determinants of institutional delivery in Ethiopia: Spatial and multilevel analysis using 2019 Ethiopian demographic and health survey [2023]
  • Spatial variation and factors associated with home delivery after ANC visit in Ethiopia; spatial and multilevel analysis [2022]
  • Spatial variation and determinant of home delivery in Ethiopia: Spatial and mixed effect multilevel analysis based on the Ethiopian mini demographic and health survey 2019 [2022]
  • Birth in a Health Facility –Inequalities among the Ethiopian Women: Results from Repeated National Surveys [2014]

• Reproductive Health
  • Home delivery among women with adequate antenatal care: insights from a multilevel analysis of the 2019 Ethiopian mini demographic and health survey [2025]

• Scientific Reports
  • The effect of lack of ANC visit and unwanted pregnancy on home child-birth in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis [2022]

• Women's Health
  • Multilevel analysis of factors associated with utilization of institutional delivery in Ethiopia [2022]

Finland

• Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica
  • Unplanned out-of-hospital deliveries in Finland: A national register study on incidence, characteristics and maternal and infant outcomes [2020]

Gambia

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Predictors of institutional delivery service utilization among women of reproductive age in Gambia: a cross-sectional analysis [2020]

Ghana

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Determinants of health facility delivery among young mothers in Ghana; insights from the 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey [2022]
  • Prevalence, progress, and social inequalities of home deliveries in Ghana from 2006 to 2018: insights from the multiple indicator cluster surveys [2021]

• PLoS ONE
  • What influences home delivery among women who live in urban areas? Analysis of 2014 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data [2021]

Guatemala

• Global Health: Science and Practice
  • Improving Maternity Care Where Home Births Are Still the Norm: Establishing Local Birthing Centers in Guatemala That Incorporate Traditional Midwives [2024]

High-income countries

• BMJ Open
  • Out-of-hospital births and the experiences of emergency ambulance clinicians and birthing parents: a scoping review of the literature [2025]

• EClinicalMedicine
  • Maternal outcomes and birth interventions among women who begin labour intending to give birth at home compared to women of low obstetrical risk who intend to give birth in hospital: A systematic review and meta-analyses [2020]
  • Perinatal or neonatal mortality among women who intend at the onset of labour to give birth at home compared to women of low obstetrical risk who intend to give birth in hospital: A systematic review and meta-analyses [2019]

Hungary

• Birth
  • In search of respect and continuity of care: Hungarian women's experiences with midwifery-led, community birth [2025]

• International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • Characteristics of Homebirth in Hungary: A Retrospective Cohort Study [2022]

India

• Advances in Therapy
  • Maternal Delivery at Home: Issues in India [2021]

• BMC Public Health
  • Why women choose to deliver at home in India: a study of prevalence, factors, and socio-economic inequality [2021]

• PLoS ONE
  • Prevalence and determinants of utilizing skilled birth attendance during home delivery of pregnant women in India: Evidence from the Indian Demographic and Health Survey 2015-16 [2024]

Indonesia

• BMJ Global Health
  • The effect of health insurance and socioeconomic status on women's choice in birth attendant and place of delivery across regions in Indonesia: a multinomial logit analysis [2023]

• Reproductive Health
  • Outcomes by birth setting and caregiver for low risk women in Indonesia: a systematic literature review [2019]

• Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare
  • Do Indonesian midwifery-led birth units provide safe, accessible care? A secondary analysis of demographic health survey cross-sectional data [2025]

International

• Applied Health Economics and Health Policy
  • The Cost and Cost-Effectiveness of Childbirth Settings: A Systematic Review [2025]

• Global Health: Science and Practice
  • Mapping the Prevalence and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Women Who Deliver Alone: Evidence From Demographic and Health Surveys From 80 Countries [2016]

• International Journal of Women's Health
  • Planned home birth: benefits, risks, and opportunities [2015]

• Midwifery
  • What do safety and risk mean to women who choose to birth at home? A systematic review [2025]
  • Systematic review of women's experiences of planning home birth in consultation with maternity care providers in middle to high-income countries [2023]

• Systematic Reviews
  • Global stakeholder perspectives of home birth: a systematic scoping review [2021]

Ireland

• Ireland's Health Services
  • Midwifery Practice Guidelines HSE Home Birth Service [2016]
  • National Home Birth Services

• Women and Birth
  • "It could not have been more different." Comparing experiences of hospital-based birth and homebirth in Ireland: A mixed-methods survey [2023]

Israel

• Ministry of Health Israel
  • Home Delivery

Italy

• Acta Biomedica
  • Cost analysis of planned out-of-hospital births in Italy [2022]

• International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • Low-Risk Planned Out-of-Hospital Births: Characteristics and Perinatal Outcomes in Different Italian Birth Settings [2020]

Low and middle income countries

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Trends in health facility deliveries by time, region, and sociodemographic characteristics in low- and middle- income countries [2025]

• BMC Public Health
  • Determinants of clean birthing practices in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review [2020]

• SSM - Population Health
  • Prevalence of home birth among 880,345 women in 67 low- and middle-income countries: A meta-analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys [2021]

Mozambique

• Reproductive Health
  • Prevalence of institutional delivery and its correlates amongst women of reproductive age in Mozambique: a cross-sectional analysis [2020]

Myanmar

• BMJ Open
  • Institutional delivery and postnatal care utilisation among reproductive-aged women who had completed four or more antenatal care visits in Myanmar: a secondary analysis of 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey [2023]

• PLoS ONE
  • Early postnatal care contact within 24 hours by skilled providers and its determinants among home deliveries in Myanmar: Further analysis of the Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey 2015-16 [2023]

Nepal

• BMC Health Services Research
  • Factors associated with health facility delivery among reproductive age women in Nepal: an analysis of Nepal multiple indicator cluster survey 2019 [2022]

• PLoS ONE
  • Associated factors for the utilization of institutional delivery services in Nepal: Findings from the Nepal Demographic Health Survey, 2022 [2025]
  • Determinants of home delivery in Nepal – A disaggregated analysis of marginalised and non-marginalised women from the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey [2020]

Netherlands

• Birth
  • More home births during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Netherlands [2023]

• Midwifery
  • Choosing for a Homebirth during COVID-19 Lockdown in The Netherlands, who and why: A national prospective questionnaire study [2025]

• PLoS ONE
  • Regional variations in childbirth interventions and their correlations with adverse outcomes, birthplace and care provider: A nationwide explorative study [2020]

• Sexual & Reproductive Healthcare
  • Decline in home births associated with faster increase in trend of postpartum haemorrhage and manual removal of the placenta [2024]

Nigeria

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Determinants of health facility delivery among young mothers aged 15 - 24 years in Nigeria: a multilevel analysis of the 2018 Nigeria demographic and health survey [2023]

• BMC Women's Health
  • Disparities and barriers of health facility delivery following optimal and suboptimal pregnancy care in Nigeria: evidence of home births from cross-sectional surveys [2023]

• BMJ Open
  • Home childbirth among young mothers aged 15–24 years in Nigeria: a national population-based cross-sectional study [2019]

• International Health
  • "I don't like to be seen by a male provider": health workers' strike, economic, and sociocultural reasons for home birth in settings with free maternal healthcare in Nigeria [2023]

• PLoS ONE
  • Regional trends, spatial patterns and determinants of health facility delivery among women of reproductive age in Nigeria: A national population based cross-sectional study [2024]

Nordic countries

• Women and Birth
  • The association between waterbirth and perineal injury or other adverse outcomes among low-risk women with physiological birth: Results from the Nordic Home Birth Cohort Study [2024]

Norway

• BMC Health Services Research
  • Cost minimisation analyses of birth care in low-risk women in Norway: a comparison between planned home birth and birth in a standard obstetric unit [2024]

Pakistan

• Health Research Policy and Systems
  • Is home delivery really preferred? a mixed-methods national study in Pakistan [2015]

Philippines

• Women's Health
  • Prevalence and determinants of home delivery in urban and rural Philippines: Evidence from the 2017 National Demographic and Health Survey [2022]

Republic of Guinea

• BMC Health Services Research
  • Non-utilization of health facility delivery and its correlates among childbearing women: a cross-sectional analysis of the 2018 Guinea demographic and health survey data [2020]

Saudi Arabia

• Ministry of Health Saudi Arabia
  • The Saudi Home Birth Standards [2021]

Sierra Leone

• BMC Health Services Research
  • Women empowerment indices and utilization of health facilities during childbirth: evidence from the 2019 Sierra Leone demographic health survey [2023]

Somaliland

• Atención Primaria
  • Prevalence and determinants of home delivery among pregnant women in Somaliland: Insights from SLDHS 2020 data [2025]

South Asia

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Institutional delivery in public and private sectors in South Asia: a comparative analysis of prospective data from four demographic surveillance sites [2016]

• PLoS ONE
  • Factors influencing place of delivery: Evidence from three south-Asian countries [2021]

Spain

• Sociedad Española de Neonatología
  • Home births: A growing phenomenon with potential risks [2021]

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Annals of Global Health
  • Prevalence and Determinants of Home Delivery among Women with Easy Access to Health Facilities in Sub-Saharan African Countries: A Multi-level Mixed Effect Analysis [2025]

• BMC Public Health
  • Predicting home delivery and identifying its determinants among women aged 15-49 years in sub-Saharan African countries using a Demographic and Health Surveys 2016-2023: a machine learning algorithm [2025]

• Journal of Global Health
  • Time trends in facility-based and private-sector childbirth care: analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 25 sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2016 [2019]

• Journal of Perinatal Medicine
  • Midwife-assisted planned home birth: an essential component of improving the safety of childbirth in Sub-Saharan Africa [2018]

• PLoS ONE
  • Prevalence and determinants of the place of delivery among reproductive age women in sub–Saharan Africa [2021]

• Reproductive Health
  • Drivers and deterrents of facility delivery in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review [2013]

Switzerland

• PLoS ONE
  • A true choice of place of birth? Swiss women's access to birth hospitals and birth centers [2022]

Tanzania

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Determinants for choice of home birth over health facility birth among women of reproductive age in Tanzania: an analysis of data from the 2015-16 Tanzania demographic and health survey and malaria indicator survey [2020]

Uganda

• BMC Health Services Research
  • Factors associated with health facility utilization during childbirth among 15 to 49-year-old women in Uganda: evidence from the Uganda demographic health survey 2016 [2021]

United Kingdom

• BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
  • Perinatal and maternal outcomes in planned home and obstetric unit births in women at ‘higher risk’ of complications: secondary analysis of the Birthplace national prospective cohort study [2015]

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • What influences birth place preferences, choices and decision-making amongst healthy women with straightforward pregnancies in the UK? A qualitative evidence synthesis using a ‘best fit’ framework approach [2017]
  • Women’s birth place preferences in the United Kingdom: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the quantitative literature [2016]

• British Association of Perinatal Medicine
  • Neonatal Support for Freestanding MLU and Home Births [2022]

• HSC Public Health Agency
  • Regional framework for midwives and obstetricians who support women requesting care outside of guidance in Northern Ireland [2023]

• Medical Law Review
  • The Medicalisation of Childbirth and Access to Homebirth in the UK: Covid-19 and Beyond [2021]

• NHS England
  • Unassisted birth guideline [2023]

• Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority
  • RQIA Guideline for Planning to Birth at Home in Northern Ireland (2019) [2019]

• Right Decisions
  • Homebirth guideline

• WISDOM
  • Homebirth Guideline [2023]

United States

• American Academy of Pediatrics
  • Providing Care for Infants Born at Home [2020]
  • Planned Home Birth [2013]

• American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
  • Planned Home Birth [2017]

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Changes in Home Births by Race and Hispanic Origin and State of Residence of Mother: United States, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 [2021]

• International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
  • The Cost of Home Birth in the United States [2021]

• Journal of Perinatal Medicine
  • Why do women choose home births [2024]
  • Predictors of planned home birth before and during the COVID-19 pandemic [2024]

• Medical Care
  • Planned Home Births in the United States Have Outcomes Comparable to Planned Birth Center Births for Low-Risk Birthing Individuals [2024]

• National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
  • Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice [2020]

• Obstetrics & Gynecology
  • Prevalence of Home Births and Associated Risk Profile and Maternal Characteristics, 2016–2018 [2020]

• PLoS ONE
  • Neonatal Mortality of Planned Home Birth in the United States in Relation to Professional Certification of Birth Attendants [2016]

Zambia

• BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
  • Trends, spatial distribution and determinants of maternal home deliveries in Zambia [2025]

{Related topics}

• Topic
  • Labor, delivery, childbirth