More women in Wales are choosing to give birth at home than those in any other part of the UK. The Office of National Statistics shows there is a rise across the whole of the UK for women opting for home births but Welsh women are pushing the trend.
In 2005, 17,279 of all births in the UK took place at home compared with 15,198 in 2004, a rise of 13.7% - in Wales they rose 18.9% during that period.
Wales now has a home birth rate of 3.61% - the fastest growing rate in the UK.
Scotland has the second highest rise in the number of home births with an increase of 14.6%.
But England has a below-UK-average rise of 13.4% between 2004-2005, bringing its home birth rate up to 2.53%. In contrast, the number of home births in Northern Ireland decreased by 12.9%, resulting in a home birth rate of just 0.33%.
Mary Newburn, Head of Policy at the National Childbirth Trust, (NCT) said: "Wales is now leading the way in provision of home birth services and choice for women. It would be fantastic if England could emulate this success, but the evidence suggests this will only happen if there is a commitment to a specific health service target to increase the home birth rate."
She said more needed to be done to enable women to give birth in their own homes.
"Currently women in many areas of the UK still find it difficult to choose a home birth. There is not enough balanced information available to enable them to make an informed choice about where to have their baby, and the shortage of midwives means that too often the option of a home birth is either not being offered or services end up being withdrawn at short notice."
December 2006 |
What? No Daddy?
