A home birth carries a higher risk for the babies of first-time mothers, according to a new study. The research, published in the British Medical Journal, also showed that despite the risk, the chance of harm to the baby is still less than one per cent. A team of experts studied almost 65,000 births in England to come to their conclusion, which also revealed that with a second birth there is no difference in the risk to babies between home, a midwife-led unit or a doctor-led hospital unit. Professor Peter Brocklehurst, who led the research, says, "The risk of an adverse outcome for a baby are higher for a woman planning her first baby at home than in all of the other settings, but there was no difference between the midwife and hospital obstetric units."
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