Abstract
The aim of this study was to analyze the outcomes and risk factors for unplanned delivery at home and before arrival to the hospital in Maribor region, Slovenia. We used data from medical records of all deliveries in Maribor region from the year 1997 to the year 2005. We analysed a total of 17,846 births from annual reports of the Maribor University Hospital. Among the total of 17,846 births, there were 58 (3.2‰) unplanned births at home and on the way to the hospital. The study based on the data from medical records on safety of unplanned home birth reveals that hospital delivery is approximately 7 times safer than unplanned home delivery. This conclusion is reached by comparing perinatal mortality, which was 68‰ for unplanned deliveries at home versus 8.8‰ for deliveries at hospital. The prematurity was more common in unplanned home deliveries: 13 (22%) versus 1399 (8%) for hospital deliveries. Unplanned deliveries at home and on the way to the hospital were more common in multiparous women (ratio 4:1 compared to 1:1 for hospital births). When for all hospital deliveries the pregnancies were followed, for one third of unplanned deliveries at home or on the way to the hospital the pregnancies were not monitored. Mothers who gave birth at home or on the way to the hospital were without higher education (i.e. 55.2%) and mothers who gave birth in hospital were with higher education (i.e. 87.4%). There was higher rate of perinatal morbidity for unplanned home deliveries compared to hospital deliveries. Factors that make unplanned home deliveries more common are high parity, absence or inadequacy of antenatal care, marital status and lower education. Some conditions in newborn, such as hypothermia, were clearly the result of unplanned birth at home. Additional effort to improve antenatal care and also identifying social vulnerabilities would possibly decrease the number of unplanned deliveries and improve the perinatal outcomes.
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