This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Having babies at home is nothing new. The practice dates back to the cave dwellers, of course, and was common well into the 20th century. But time passed, medicine advanced, infant mortality rates shrank, and now most women choose to have their children in hospitals or birthing centers at health-care facilities.
Still, some Utahns are partial to having their babies the old-fashioned way. In an average year, according to the Utah Department of Health, planned home births make up about 1.2 percent of all births in the state, double the national average. About 80 percent of those births are attended by midwives.
There are advantages to both methods. Children born at home are born into warm, comfortable surroundings instead of the often-hectic, sometimes-clinical settings that hospitals provide. But at hospitals, attending physicians have access to the latest equipment, which could prove to be a lifesaver if complications arise.
In 2005 the Legislature, after years of lobbying from friends and foes of home births, took steps to make the practice even safer. The 2-year-old law, which requires training and licensing of direct-entry midwives and allows them to perform some tests and administer certain medications, seems like a winner. It gives a state stamp of approval to midwives, while alleviating concerns of home-birth critics.
We thought they'd put that baby to bed, but it's an issue once again.
Despite a new Department of Health report that shows home-birth outcomes compare favorably with hospital births, a proposed new law would place heavy restrictions on the practice. Senate Bill 243, sponsored by Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, a former labor and delivery room nurse and the wife of a retired obstetrician, would limit home births with direct-entry midwives to women experiencing a "normal pregnancy." It then lists dozens of conditions which would require the services of a doctor or a midwife with advanced medical training.
Critics say passage of the bill would effectively end home delivery by direct-entry midwives, and for no good reason. The state study indicates that home-born babies have higher birth weights and that mothers are less likely to experience labor and delivery complications.
It's hard for medical lay people, state legislators and editorial board members included, to make these kinds of decisions. But it seems to us that it would be wise to wait until more evidence is in. Dayton's trying to fix a problem that may not exist.