Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics

Birth-related decisions principally center on safety; giving birth during a pandemic brings safety challenges to a new level, especially when choosing the birth setting. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the concurrent work furloughs, business failures, and mounting public and private debt have made prudent...

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Autores principales: Daviss, Betty-Anne, Anderson, David A., Johnson, Kenneth C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8022486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33869572
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.618210
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author Daviss, Betty-Anne
Anderson, David A.
Johnson, Kenneth C.
author_facet Daviss, Betty-Anne
Anderson, David A.
Johnson, Kenneth C.
author_sort Daviss, Betty-Anne
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description Birth-related decisions principally center on safety; giving birth during a pandemic brings safety challenges to a new level, especially when choosing the birth setting. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the concurrent work furloughs, business failures, and mounting public and private debt have made prudent expenditures an inescapable second concern. This article examines the intersections of safety, economic efficiency, insurance, liability and birthing persons’ needs that have become critical as the pandemic has ravaged bodies and economies around the world. Those interests, and the challenges and solutions discussed in this article, remain important even in less troubled times. Our economic analysis suggests that having an additional 10% of deliveries take place in private homes or freestanding birth centers could save almost $11 billion per year in the United States without compromising safety.
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spelling pubmed-80224862021-04-15 Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics Daviss, Betty-Anne Anderson, David A. Johnson, Kenneth C. Front Sociol Sociology Birth-related decisions principally center on safety; giving birth during a pandemic brings safety challenges to a new level, especially when choosing the birth setting. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the concurrent work furloughs, business failures, and mounting public and private debt have made prudent expenditures an inescapable second concern. This article examines the intersections of safety, economic efficiency, insurance, liability and birthing persons’ needs that have become critical as the pandemic has ravaged bodies and economies around the world. Those interests, and the challenges and solutions discussed in this article, remain important even in less troubled times. Our economic analysis suggests that having an additional 10% of deliveries take place in private homes or freestanding birth centers could save almost $11 billion per year in the United States without compromising safety. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-03-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8022486/ /pubmed/33869572 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.618210 Text en Copyright © 2021 Daviss, Anderson and Johnson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Sociology
Daviss, Betty-Anne
Anderson, David A.
Johnson, Kenneth C.
Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics
title Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics
title_full Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics
title_fullStr Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics
title_full_unstemmed Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics
title_short Pivoting to Childbirth at Home or in Freestanding Birth Centers in the US During COVID-19: Safety, Economics and Logistics
title_sort pivoting to childbirth at home or in freestanding birth centers in the us during covid-19: safety, economics and logistics
topic Sociology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8022486/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33869572
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.618210
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