Births outside the hospital went from 44 percent of all births in 1940 to less than 1 percent by 1969 and basically stayed at that level until 2004-2006, when the number rose by 3 percent, from 0.87 percent to 0.90 percent of all births.
Nearly 65 percent of the out-of-hospital births occurred in homes, 28 percent in birthing centers and 1.1 percent in a clinic or doctor’s office, while the rest were not specified.
Of home births in 2006, 61 percent were delivered by midwives, compared with 43 percent in 1990.
Read the CDC’s report on hospital births (pdf).
