So the most recent data I have at the time I'm filming this come from 2017 in the United States.

That year there were a little more than 62,000 out of hospital births.

That means one out of 62 births in the U.S. did take place out of hospital.

This included 38,300 home births and about almost 20,000 freestanding

birth center births. A small proportion of out-of-hospital births were listed as, quote,

other, the clinician or doctor's office, or unknown. Importantly, in the past, U.S. birth certificate

data showed only the number of births that actually

occurred in each setting, not were the family intended to give birth. However, in 2017, the planning

status of home birth was reported by all states except California. For the 49 reporting states

and Washington, D.C., about 85% of home births were planned,

and 15% were unplanned. I also wanted to talk about a recent move toward using the term

community birth to talk about either planned home birth or birth center birth. However, most

research up until this point,

including national and international statistics as well as other studies, use the term out of

hospital birth. So you'll see me or hear me using both those terms throughout these videos.

Now in the year 1900, nearly all of the United States births occurred at home.

But by 1940, only about 44% of US births occurred outside of a hospital.

By 1969, only 1% of US births occurred outside of a hospital.

The percent of out of hospital births has hovered it around

1% for several decades. After a small gradual decline from 1990 to 2004, the percentage of births

taking place at home and in birth centers has been increasing. For example, home births

increased from about 0.6% in 2004

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