From home to hospital: sustainable transfers of care in the United States
Files
Accepted manuscript
Date
2021
DOI
Authors
Dunham, Bria
Hall, Sara
Version
Accepted manuscript
OA Version
Citation
B. Dunham, S. Hall. 2021. "From Home to Hospital: Sustainable Transfers of Care in the United States." pp. 61 - 72.
Abstract
Due to a range of factors, including but not limited to obstetric complications, a person who had planned to give birth at home may be transferred to a hospital setting. These transfers of care can be facilitated in a sustainable manner by maintaining the pregnant individual’s support personnel, avoiding unnecessary replication of tests and procedures, limiting obstetric interventions to those medically indicated and desired by the pregnant individual, and eliminating the fragmentation of care between sites and providers during the transfer. The Best Practice Guidelines for transfers of planned homebirths to hospital settings, as developed by delegates to the Home Birth Summit, provide a humanized framework for these transfers that may be all the more urgent during disruptive times and for pregnant individuals who face additional vulnerabilities.