The safest place of birth: further evidence.

The distribution of births for each place of delivery was studied with a composite antenatal prediction score, incorporating the most important risk factors, which was developed for the second volume of British Births 1970. Although consultant hospitals are seen to have the greatest share of births at moderate and high risk, this is not sufficient to account for the whole amount by which perinatal mortality in these hospitals exceeds that in other places of delivery.