Home births as a "right" of female patients in the context of medicine, legislation and court jurisprudence

Česká verzia

Authors: Andrea Erdősová ¹ ; Petra Gašparová ² ; Zuzana Ballová ² ; Erik Dosedla ²
Authors place of work: Ústav medzinárodného a európskeho práva, Fakulta práva, Paneurópska vysoká škola, Bratislava, Slovenská republika ¹; Gynekologicko-pôrodnícka klinika LF UPJŠ a Nemocnice AGEL Košice-Šaca a. s., Slovenská republika ²
Published in the journal: Ceska Gynekol 2023; 88(5): 390-396
Category:
doi: https://doi.org/10.48095/cccg2023390

Summary

Currently, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, more and more women prefer a planned home birth to a hospital birth, despite the fact that the hospital provides a safe environment for laboring women, thanks to the possibility to intervene at any time in case of complications. These women consider childbirth a natural process, while obstetric care is often considered unnecessary. According to the World Health Organization, birth can only be defined as physiological after birth. Even though women can give birth without medical assistance, it is not possible to identify in advance the mothers and newborns who will need some kind of intervention during childbirth. Although a planned home birth is associated with fewer maternal interventions and the probability of a spontaneous vaginal birth, compared to a planned hospital birth, the risk of neonatal death is two- to three-times higher.

Keywords:

maternal mortality – perinatal mortality – home birth – out-of-hospital birth – low-risk pregnancy

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