The author responds
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* Lee Saxell

This is a population-based study 1 which used data from a provincial perinatal database with no personal identifiers. The charts and therefore the clinical details surrounding each death were not available. In Canada, stillbirth is defined as intrauterine death after 20 weeks gestation. Early neonatal death is from birth to 7 days. Together this time period is referred to as perinatal death and it is a standard mortality rate in Canada. We also examined the time period between 8 to 28 days of life and there were no deaths during this period (late neonatal period) in any of the 3 comparison groups. Following this first broad data search, the 3 groups were matched for comparison. All of the groups had to meet the eligibility requirements for home birth, regardless of planned place of birth. Only those births that occurred between 37 + 0 weeks and < 42 weeks were included in the final analysis.

## Footnotes

*   **For the full letter, go to:** [www.cmaj.ca/cgi/eletters/cmaj.081869v1#178829](http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/eletters/cmaj.081869v1#178829)

## REFERENCE

1.  1. Janssen PA, Saxell L, Page LA et al. Outcomes of planned home birth with registered midwife versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician *CMAJ* 2009. DOI:10.1503/cmaj.081869