02 January 2017 02 Jan 2017

Motivations and influences acting on women choosing a homebirth: Seeking a ‘cwtch’ birth setting

In the UK, only a small number of women have a homebirth Recent birth figures report that, on average, 23% of women gave birth at home in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics (ONS), 2015) The gradual shift from domiciliary to hospital birth witnessed in the early decades of the 20th century gathered pace in the early 1960s, reaching a nadir for homebirth by 1974 (Nove et al, 2008)