ArticleBMC health services research2009
Cost analysis of the Dutch obstetric system: low-risk nulliparous women preferring home or short-stay hospital birth--a prospective non-randomised controlled study.
Article in BMC health services research, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Costing Alternative Birth Settings for Women at Low Risk of Complications: A Systematic Review.PloS one · 2016Pooled it
- Cost-Effectiveness of Routine Third Trimester Ultrasound Screening for Fetal Growth Restriction Compared to Care as Usual in Low-Risk Pregnancies: A Pragmatic Nationwide Stepped-Wedge Cluster-Randomized Trial in The Netherlands (the IRIS Study).International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Trial
- Miscarriage Tissue Research: Still in Its Infancy.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- A Scoping Review Mapping Economic Evaluations of Midwifery Service Provision and the Midwifery Workforce.Applied health economics and health policy · 2025Article
- Give birth in rural hometowns or urban areas? Place of delivery among rural migrant working mothers in the Pearl river delta, China.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Determinants of Place of Delivery Among Migrant Working Mothers in China.International journal of women's health · 2025Article
- Cost minimisation analyses of birth care in low-risk women in Norway: a comparison between planned home birth and birth in a standard obstetric unit.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Article
- Comparison of Frequency of Home Births in the Member States of the EU Between 2015 and 2019.Global pediatric health · 2022Article
- Article
- [Early postpartum discharge: outcomes and risk factors of readmission].The Pan African medical journal · 2016Article
- Costs of Planned Home vs. Hospital Birth in British Columbia Attended by Registered Midwives and Physicians.PloS one · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn the Netherlands, pregnant women without medical complications can decide where they want to give birth, at home or in a short-stay hospital setting with a midwife. However, a decrease in the home birth rate during the last decennium may have raised the societal costs of giving birth. The objective of this study is to compare the societal costs of home births with those of births in a short-stay hospital setting.
methodsThis study is a cost analysis based on the findings of a multicenter prospective non-randomised study comparing two groups of nulliparous women with different preferences for where to give birth, at home or in a short-stay hospital setting. Data were collected using cost diaries, questionnaires and birth registration forms. Analysis of the data is divided into a base case analysis and a sensitivity analysis.
resultsIn the group of home births, the total societal costs associated with giving birth at home were euro3,695 (per birth), compared with euro3,950 per birth in the group for short-stay hospital births. Statistically significant differences between both groups were found regarding the following cost categories 'Cost of contacts with health care professionals during delivery' (euro138.38 vs. euro87.94, -50 (2.5-97.5 percentile range (PR)-76;-25), p < 0.05), 'cost of maternity care at home' (euro1,551.69 vs. euro1,240.69, -311 (PR -485; -150), p < 0.05) and 'cost of hospitalisation mother' (euro707.77 vs. 959.06, 251 (PR 69;433), p < 0.05). The highest costs are for hospitalisation (41% of all costs). Because there is a relatively high amount of (partly) missing data, a sensitivity analysis was performed, in which all missing data were included in the analysis by means of general mean substitution. In the sensitivity analysis, the total costs associated with home birth are euro4,364 per birth, and euro4,541 per birth for short-stay hospital births.
conclusionThe total costs associated with pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care are comparable for home birth and short-stay hospital birth. The most important differences in costs between the home birth group and the short-stay hospital birth group are associated with maternity care assistance, hospitalisation, and travelling costs.
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