A letter in the current issue of the BMJ (4 September, p 473) calls for the withdrawal of an American study criticised here in July.
 
The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, claimed an elevated risk of home births over those in hospital, but only by basing the conclusion on less than 10 per cent of the available data.
 
Two Canadian professors, Betty-Ann Daviss and Kenneth C. Johnson, say the appropriate conclusion from the data presented would have been that home births produce the same outcomes as hospital births, with far less intervention.

“Not so savoury for the international media but fairer to birthing women” they conclude. “Given its shortcomings this meta-analysis should be withdrawn”. My sentiments exactly.