Home births double in ČR

Prague, May 5 (CTK) - A total of 419 out the 117,000 new-born babies were born outside maternity clinics in 2009, whereby the figure doubled in the past five years in the Czech Republic, according to the data from the Czech Gynaecological and Obstetrician Society.

The long-term average was 200 annually for decades, the data show.

The biggest figure, 151, was recorded in Prague in 2009.

The number of births executed by midwives is on the rise as well.

However, the Czech Gynaecological and Obstetrician Society does not recommend home births as they are risky both for the child and mother.

Some four dead children are born outside a health facility annually.

"It is hard to say whether the growing number of home births was caused by a large number of women from other countries being in the Czech Republic," Vladimir Dvorak, chairman of the Czech Gynaecological and Obstetrician Society, said.

"The women may keep the customs from their country of origin. Or there may be a very small group of women by whom home births are popular," Dvorak said.

Statistically, home births include the cases in which a woman is unable to reach a maternity clinic in time and the child is born with the help of paramedics.

However, some women arrange for a home birth with a midwife. In such a case, health insurance companies do not cover the costs.

Dvorak said despite the growing number of births in a different than "impersonal environment of maternity clinic," 400 births were not a significant part of the total 100,000.

"Virtually all expert societies in Europe are against home births," Dvorak said.

If midwives claim that home births are common elsewhere in the world, they "grossly fudge reality," he added.