Outcomes of planned home births assisted by nurse midwives

Abstract

Aim: to describe maternal and neonatal outcomes of planned home births assisted by nurse-midwives. Methods: descriptive, exploratory, retrospective, documental and quantitative study. The sample included 99 records from three home birth teams from Brasília, Brazil, in 2015. The Statistical Package for Social Science version 20.0 was applied to obtain a descriptive statistical analysis. Results: women’s mean age was 31.6 years, 87.9% had higher education, 90.9% were married, 78.8% were engaged in remunerated activities, 63.6% were primiparous or had no previous delivery, all of them adopted vertical position, 87.5% of newborns were placed skin-to-skin with their mothers and initiated breastfeeding, all the newborns had delayed umbilical cord clamping and 98.7% received 5th minute APGAR ≥ 7. 21% of women and 1.2% of newborns were transferred to the hospital, without any unfavorable condition. Conclusion: outcomes indicated that planned home births attended by nurse midwives provide a qualified and safe assistance, confirming other scientific findings