Working group flags data gap on planned home births, eyes DPH and public‑health school collaboration

Members of a community birth working group debriefed a recent Council on Women and Girls (COAG) presentation and identified a gap in public‑health data about planned out‑of‑institution births and transfers to hospitals. Dante, who summarized the COAG session, said COAG’s health and safety subcommittee includes a Department of Public Health commissioner and that the public‑health schools at universities signaled possible interest in research or evaluation support.

“DPH doesn’t know how many of those babies were planned home birth,” Dante said, noting that vital‑records processes currently do not capture whether an out‑of‑hospital birth was planned or who attended. The group discussed examples from other states, including Oregon, as possible models for tracking and evaluation.

Why it matters: the group said better data on transfers and planned out‑of‑facility births would help clarify transfer rates, inform educational outreach for hospitals and families, and provide evidence about the frequency and outcomes of transfers. Dante and others proposed exploring public‑health school partnerships to analyze existing records, develop reporting mechanisms, or pilot data‑collection approaches.

Participants did not agree on a specific data collection approach at the meeting. They noted technical hurdles (how births outside institutions are registered) and jurisdictional limits on what DPH can and currently does collect. The group agreed to continue brainstorming possible collaborations and to raise the issue in upcoming sessions with certified nurse‑midwives and hospital providers.

The working group plans to follow up in April with a meeting focused on CNMs’ perspectives and in May with a broader roundtable of hospital clinicians and administrators to improve communication about transfers and what hospital staff need when families arrive from home settings.