Did you know that there is a nicely annotated guide to the literature on home birth? Published by the University of British Columbia Midwifery Program, it is an open source document divided into the following categories:
Section A Best available studies on planned home birth and maternal fetal outcomes.
Section B Studies exhibiting problems with the design, analysis or reporting.
Section C Articles providing critical appraisal of original studies and meta analyses on planned home birth and maternal fetal outcomes.
Section D Evaluations of women’s choice and satisfaction with home birth.
Section E A reference list of citations on provider attitudes towards home birth.
Section F A reference list of citations on policy, economic, legal, and ethical issues related to home birth.
The document carefully outlines their methods (which include group discussion and consensus, followed by multiple external expert reviewers.) and summarizes quite a few studies. It would be a good place to get an initial overview of the research. The guide is regularly updated, most recently in October 2013.