Birth centre trials are unreliable

Fahy, Kathleen M; Tracy, Sally

doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00627.x

Topics

To the Editor: The 2005 Cochrane review Home-like versus conventional institutional settings for birth1 has been cited in the public media to claim that birth centres are less safe than labour wards as there was an increased risk of a baby dying during or immediately after childbirth.2

1 Faculty of Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NSW.
2 School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.

Correspondence: Kathleen.Fahy@newcastle.edu.au

1. Hodnett ED, Downe S, Edwards N, Walsh D. Home-like versus conventional institutional settings for birth. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2005; (1): CD000012. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000012.pub2.
2. Australian Medical Association. Discussion of midwife-led birthing units – AMA’s Dr Andrew Pesce on the Today Show [media transcript]. Released 31 August 2005. http://www.ama.com.au/web.nsf/doc/WEEN-6FS3EU (accessed Jul 2006).
3. Higgins P, Green S, editors. Cochrane handbook for systematic reviews of interventions. Version 4.2.5. Cambridge, UK: The Cochrane Collaboration, 2005. http://www.cochrane.org/resources/handbook/ (accessed Jul 2006).
4. Borelli B, Sepinwall D, Ernst D, et al. A new tool to assess treatment fidelity and evaluation of treatment fidelity across 10 years of health behaviour research. J Consult Clin Psychol 2005; 73: 852-860.

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