Since I'm trying to gather as many scientific studies from credible journals as possible (as a result of being kicked off a mom/pregnancy board for posting a blog page of information/thoughts/options that only referred to the position of ACOG-American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and did not include long-term, double blind, scientific studies on the subjects)....I present a Canadian study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
In summary...
"The study analyzed all planned home births attended by registered midwives from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2004, in British Columbia, Canada (n = 2889), and all planned hospital births meeting the eligibility requirements for home birth that were attended by the same cohort of midwives (n = 4752). We also included a matched sample of physician-attended planned hospital births (n = 5331)." Meaning...these were not necessarily "high risk" patients in the hospital. Everyone started out on the same playing field.
"The rate of perinatal death per 1000 births was 0.35 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.00–1.03) in the group
of planned home births; the rate in the group of planned hospital births was 0.57 (95% CI 0.00–1.43) among women attended by a midwife and 0.64 (95% CI 0.00–1.56) among those attended by a physician."
WOOT!
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/181/6-7/377
