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Out-of-hospital births in California 1991–2011

Journal of Perinatology volume 38, pages 41–45 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Objective:

We investigated the frequencies and characteristics of out-of-hospital births in a 20-year period in California, where 1 of every 7 births in the United States occurs.

Study Design:

Birth certificate records of deliveries in California between 1991 and 2011 were analyzed. Out-of-hospital births were assessed by year, parity, gestational age and maternal race/ethnicity.

Results:

In the 20-year period there were 10 593,904 deliveries, of which 46 243 occurred out of hospital (0.44%). Out-of-hospital births decreased from 0.54 to 0.38% per year between 1991 and 2004, and increased from 0.41% in 2005 to 0.61% in 2011. In contrast, preterm out-of-hospital births declined from 7.2% in 2006 to 5.0% in 2011. The frequency of vaginal birth after cesarean in the out-of-hospital birth cohort increased from 1.2% (n=19) in 1996 to 4.2% (n=82) in 2011.

Conclusion:

California birth records from a 20-year period show an increase in out-of-hospital births from years 2005 to 2011, following a period of decline from 1991 to 2004.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University and the Stanford Child Health Research Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    A I Girsen, D J Lyell, Y J Blumenfeld, Y Y El-Sayed & M L Druzin

  2. Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    J A Mayo, D K Stevenson & G M Shaw

Authors
  1. A I Girsen
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  2. J A Mayo
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  3. D J Lyell
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  4. Y J Blumenfeld
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  5. D K Stevenson
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  6. Y Y El-Sayed
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  7. G M Shaw
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  8. M L Druzin
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on behalf of the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at Stanford University School of Medicine

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A I Girsen.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

This work was presented as a poster at the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s 36th annual meeting at Atlanta, GA, in February, 2016.

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Girsen, A., Mayo, J., Lyell, D. et al. Out-of-hospital births in California 1991–2011. J Perinatol 38, 41–45 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/jp.2017.156

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