Further Neonatal Mortality
and Prematurity Follow-up

We compare the CPM2000 neonatal mortality rate among planned homebirths to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) neonatal mortality rate for births in hospital to U.S. non-Hispanic white women of 37 weeks plus gestation in the year 2004. Adjustments are made to ensure that the comparison is as close as possible to comparing like with like. This includes removal from the CPM2000 death rate of intrapartum mortality, 3 deaths involving lethal birth defects unlikely to have been carried to term in the hospital population, and 1 death and 286 births among African-American and Hispanic women. After making the necessary adjustments that were possible, the neonatal death rate in both datasets was just under 1 death per 1000. Our conclusions remains unchanged from those in the original article—the neonatal mortality rate for low risk women in North America using certified professional midwives is similar to that for low risk women in hospital in the U.S., and the intervention rates are much lower. We note that the premature birth rate for the NIH non- Hispanic white births in hospital was 11.3%, more than double the rate for the women cared for by Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs). Higher prematurity is a serious concern for the U.S. hospital births, because prematurity is associated with much higher perinatal mortality and morbidity.