It found that for low-risk women, homebirth was as safe as hospital
birth. Apparently, the BMJ gave homebirth a very positive write up.
This is important, as the BMJ is one of the leading journals for doctors
in the UK and can be an opinion former. The study found that OVERALL
the perinatal death rate for babies born at home was 4 times that of
hospital births, BUT that was because most of the home births were in
emergency circumstances or to women who were denying their pregnancies.
PLANNED homebirths with competent supervision, on the other hand, were
found to have equivalent statistics to hospital births in a similar
population.