Homebirth advocates like to tout the many “advantages” of giving birth at home. High on the list is limiting exposure to hospital acquired infections, and since only your “own germs” are in your home, you are protected.

Yes, you are protected from hospital acquired infections, but the most dangerous infectious agents are actually those that live inside the mother, not the ones in the hospital. Consider that for newborns both Group B strep and herpes virus represents potentially deadly threats. And both Group B strep and herpes virus are infectious agents carried by the mother. In other words, the most deadly infectious threat to the baby is the mother herself.

For mothers, the most common infectious risk is a uterine infection. Once again the infectious agent is usually a bacteria living in the vagina. Homebirth advocates like to fling accusations about women who contract life threatening sepsis at home and are fond of pointing out horror stories like the unfortunate woman in Florida who ended up losing parts of multiple limbs due to Group A strep (“flesh eating” bacteria) sepsis. But what they don’t realize is that approximately 90% of cases of Group A strep sepsis are acquired outside the hospital because the bacteria lives in the community. Usually it is harmless, but when it invades a wound (like the raw surface of the inside of the uterus after birth), the results can be disastrous.

It appears that this has happened in a small Texas town. According to the local paper:

A few weeks ago, a perfectly healthy Katy gave birth to daughter Arielle, only to experience an intense and prolonged pain after the birth.

… Doctors at Kingwood Medical Center eventually discovered the new mom had a Streptococcal A infection that had aggressively invaded her body.

As a result, Katy has experienced multiple organ failure and is unconscious. Surgery last week involved the removal of several sepsis organs. She is currently on a ventilator and is receiving dialysis.

Katy had had an eight hour, drug-free, intervention free labor and delivered a 10 pound baby girl … in a planned homebirth.

Of course, the result may not have been any different had Katy given birth in the hospital, since she would have brought the bacteria in with her. And that is the important point to keep in mind. While hospital acquired infections are a serious problem for the elderly and the immuno-compromised, they are far less common in obstetric care. During childbirth, the bacteria and viruses that pose the greatest threat to babies and mothers are those carried by the mother herself.

Homebirth does not offer protection against serious neonatal and maternal infections, because the most dangerous “germs” are “your own germs at home.”

Amy Tuteur is an obstetrician-gynecologist who blogs at The Skeptical OB.

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