Distance to delivery room is crucial to mothers. Long distances can also increase the risk of child death, according to a new report.
Researchers at the University of Bergen (UiB) has over eleven years studied 6,000 births and concludes that small, local delivery rooms, are as safe as larger hospitals, NRK writes. But in some cases increases the chance of risky births.
– Women with unplanned births outside of institutions have three times the risk of the baby dying during birth or in the first few days afterwards, doctor and researcher at UiB, Hilde Engjom, said.
– What we also see is that those women who have a long distance to travel, one to two hours or more, also have a higher risk, she says. But the researchers believe that the system where mothers with complications are forwarded to the major clinics works well.
– The risk that the baby dies during or shortly after birth appears to be similar in policlinics. It is also low at local delivery rooms, but here there is a difference between first-time mothers and those who have given birth before, Hilde Engjom states.
The report concludes that it is safe to give birth in Norway. Less than 1 per cent of children born at term at Norwegian maternity clinics do not survive the first day.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
