Women must be given clearer warnings on the potentially fatal dangers of giving birth at home and should only be aided by experienced midwives, experts have said.
Maternity services worldwide are dealing with an increase in the number of women with more complex pregnancies. Many are choosing to have their baby in a familiar environment, in the comfort and privacy of their own home. Some choose a home birth because having their first baby in hospital was “deeply traumatic” and they are reluctant to repeat the experience.
But access to safe, reliable and unrestricted home birth services is patchy, and varies enormously depending on where you live, experts say. Healthcare services in lots of countries struggle to offer home birth services because of staffing shortages, inconsistent training or local policy limitations. Some have dedicated home birth teams, while others rely on overstretched community staff.
The Guardian has spoken to leading doctors, academics and pregnancy experts about home births after a coroner’s court in Rochdale, England, ruled that a mother and daughter died following a home birth owing to “a gross failure to provide basic medical care”.
Jennifer Cahill, 34, died at North Manchester general hospital hours after suffering a haemorrhage while giving birth at home in Prestwich on 3 June 2024. Her baby, Agnes Lily, was delivered not breathing, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. She died at the same hospital as her mother a few days later.
In England and Wales, about one in 50 births take place at home. However, they are recommended only for low-risk pregnancies. Cahill’s pregnancy was considered high-risk because she had suffered a postpartum haemorrhage after giving birth to her first child in 2021.
Because of this, she was advised to have her second baby in hospital. But her husband, Rob, told the court the dangers of a home birth had not been fully explained. Phrases such as “out of guidance” were favoured, rather than “against medical advice”, and the risk of death was not explicitly raised, the inquest was told.
“This is an unbearably sad case of two avoidable deaths,” said Kim Thomas, chief executive of the Birth Trauma Association, one of the first charities in the world to support women and families who have experienced traumatic births. “We often hear from women who, having had a deeply traumatic first birth in hospital, are reluctant to give birth in hospital again. Some choose not to have another baby, while others opt for home birth.
“Unfortunately, for women like Jennifer Cahill, who had experienced numerous complications in her previous birth, a home birth can be particularly risky. Several things seem to have gone wrong in this case. It seems staff were reluctant to spell out the risks to Mrs Cahill, so she was not able to make a fully informed decision.”
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Source: The Guardian, 4 November 2025
