Home confinement: the positive results in Holland

This study was an objective evaluation of the outcome of home confinement, which is still common in Holland, compared with delivery in hospital. To this end, 1,692 women in Groningen were interviewed three weeks after confinement to find out how their pregnancy, delivery and childbed period had progressed according to the place of confinement, and to obtain facts about the morbidity of their babies.Among women who had opted for home confinement (if allowed) significantly fewer complications occurred during pregnancy, delivery or puerperium than among those who had their babies in hospital. Morbidity was also lower among babies born at home. The study suggests that it is a responsible decision for a normal healthy woman given the right kind of antenatal supervision to have her baby at home with the least risk of complications.