Apgar Scoring System in Brazil’s Live Births Records: Differences between Home and Hospital Births

Abstract Objective To promote informed choice for women and to compare home andhospital births in relation to the Apgar score. Methods Mother’s profile and Apgar score of naturally born infants (without forceps assistance) in Brazil between 2011 and 2015, in both settings-hospital or home-were collected from live birth records provided by the Informatics Department of the Unified Health System (DATASUS, in the Portuguese acronym). For the analysis, were included only data fromlow-riskdeliveries, including gestational time between 37 and 41weeks, singleton pregnancy, at least four visits of prenatal care, infants weighing between 2,500 g, and 4,000 g, mother age between 20-40 years old, and absence of congenital anomalies. Results Home birth infants presented significantly higher risk of 0-5 Apgar scores, both in 1 minute (6.4% versus 3%, odds ratio [OR] = 2.2, confidence interval [CI] IC 2-2.4) and in 5 minutes (4.8% versus0.4%,OR = 11.5,CI 10.5-12.7). Another findingis related to recovery estimateswhen from an initially bad 1-minute Apgar ( 6). In this scenario, home infants had poorer recovery, Apgar scorewas persistently