Born before arrival. A five year retrospective controlled study

Summary

A retrospective controlled study of 57 unplanned births, occurring at home, en route or at non-maternity units is reported. Twelve per cent of the women had not been booked for hospital delivery and 20 per cent were booked at other hospitals. Similar numbers of hospital births matched for age, parity, ethnic origin, presentation and gestational age were studied as controls.

There were 4 perinatal deaths out of 58 babies in the study group (69/1000) compared to 2 deaths in the controls (35/1000; 18/1000 corrected for one congenitally abnormal baby). The hospital perinatal mortality rate was 9/1000 for all patients delivered at the hospital during the study period. Breech presentation seemed to contribute an increased risk with birth before arrival.

Factors contributing to unplanned births include mul-tiparity, women below age 20, unmarried, unskilled and unbooked.