A study released this week on home birth in America shows a substantial increase in the still very small numbers of women who are choosing to have home births.

The study, released online in Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care, shows that of the 4.2 million births in the United States in 2008, 28,357 were home births. That is 2/3 of one percent of the total, but it represents a 20 percent increase, from 0.56 percent in 2004.

Non-Hispanic white women accounted for most of the growth, with an increase of 28 percent between 2004 and 2008. More than 1 percent of those women now have their births at home.

The study was based on United States birth-certificate data.