All right, so in the last video, we talked about the research on home birth in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Now we're going to turn to research on home birth in the United States.

In the U.S., a little less than 1% of births take place at home, and most of those are planned.

85% are planned home births.

Out of hospital birth is more common in Alaska, 8% of all births in Alaska are at home,

and the other states with the second highest rate are tied, and that is Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and

Washington, and Pennsylvania. 80% of attendance at planned home births in the United States are midwives. About a third of

them are either certified nurse midwives or certified midwives, and about half are non-certified

nurse midwives or certified midwives, mostly CPMs. And the reason we don't know for sure is because

birth certificates do not classify them. They just say a non-cNM

CM midwife however all three of these credentials are accredited by national agencies in contrast

to the United Kingdom and Canada the obstetrical organization here in the United States

ACOG discourages home birth although they do say that they respect

the right to informed consent. Their 2017 committee opinion on planned homebirth says,

quote, although the committee on obstetric practice believes that hospitals and birthing centers are the

safest setting for birth, it respects the right of a woman to make a medically informed decision about delivery."

The climate surrounding home birth in the U.S. is quite different than that of the United

Kingdom and Canada. There is no integrated maternity care system between the outpatient

and the inpatient settings. There's also no clear communication channels between different birth settings or provider types.

We do not have a universal data collection process.

We have birth certificates which are, how do I say this nicely, not always the most accurate data set.

Because we do not have that universal data collection like they do in other countries,

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