Home births in Canada

Question

I can't seem to find any statistics on home births in the StatCan pages - CANSIM,  Health in Canada, etc. Is there anything?

 

Answer

The Cansim Table 102-4516 provides data on “Live births and fetal deaths (stillbirths), by place of birth (hospital and non-hospital), Canada, provinces and territories, annual”.  The term “non-hospital” is defined in the footnotes for the table: the category "Place of birth , non-hospital" includes births in private homes, in health care institutions such as nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, nursing stations and other short-term care facilities and other health care facilities not licensed to operate as hospitals by provincial, territorial or federal governments, such as free-standing birthing centres and at other specified sites.

There is also data on non-hospital births in the Canadian Maternity Experiences Survey (data tables are available on the Public Health Agency of Canada website):  http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/rhs-ssg/pdf/tab-eng.pdf

Here is the Daily release for that survey:  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/071127/dq071127d-eng.htm