A Randomized Comparison of Home Visits and Hospital-Based Group Follow-Up Visits After Early Postpartum Discharge

Abstract

For low-risk mothers and newborns in an integrated managed care organization, home visits compared with hospital-based follow-up and group visits were more costly but achieved comparable clinical outcomes and were associated with higher maternal satisfaction. Neither strategy is associated with significantly greater success at increasing continuation of breastfeeding. This study had limited power to identify group differences in rehospitalization and may not be generalizable to higher-risk populations without comparable access to integrated hospital and outpatient care.