In response to the recent growth in interest over<unk> , several national medical societies, including the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, have issued strongly worded public statements warning against the practice. Professional midwives' associations, including the Royal College of Midwives and the American College of Nurse-Midwives also caution against UC.<unk>  has been linked to substantially elevated rates of both maternal and neonatal mortality. One of the few, and perhaps the only, formal investigation of the mortality rates associated with the practice was conducted by the Indiana State Board of Health in 1984, among members of a religious community in Indiana. The investigation found a perinatal mortality rate 2.7 times higher, and a maternal mortality rate 97 times higher than the state average. In this community, pregnant women receive no prenatal medical care and deliver at home without medical assistance. This community avoids not only prenatal medical care but all medical care.<unk>  comes with serious risks. If something comes wrong during labor, the mother and child might need assistance from trained medical staff. According to the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Thomas Purdon, twenty percent of all previously normal pregnancies turn into complications and high-risk situations during the course of labor that could result in serious adverse outcome to mother and baby, including death. OB-GYNs do not recommend home births, even when attended by a medical professional, if the mother has hypertension or when a breech birth is expected. A 2010 meta-analysis of existing research concluded that planned homebirths had a three times higher mortality rate for babies.
Unassisted childbirth
Natural childbirth
Postpartum confinement
Home birth
Coffin birth
Post-coital tristesse
Exsanguination
Self-inflicted caesarean section