Home birth is uncommon in the United Kingdom and
uncertainty exists about its safety.1 2 Almost all mortality figures available nationally1 provide merely a single global figure
for planned and unplanned home births,
though the constituent rates differ greatly.3 The only recent figures
for planned home birth in England and Wales relating to 19794 and 19935 provide an inaccurately low estimate of risk because it was not possible to
account for those mothers who originally booked to have a home delivery but ended up delivering in hospital.