Women's choice of home or hospital birth

In the current professional debate over the relative advantages and disadvantages of birth in hospitals vs birth at home, chief concern has been given to issues of medical risk. However, little is known about how lay women as consumers of maternity care assess the risks of birth location. This paper briefly reviews the social literature examining the factors that influence women's obstetric plans in a variety of social and cultural contexts. Two important considerations emerge. First, women's perceptions of medical risk frequently do not conform to mainstream obstetrics doctrine, and second, women's birth plans are based on evaluations of social as well as medical risks and benefits connected with place of birth.