|
|
Birthing centers, like homebirth, minimize the likelihood of interventions during the labor and birth. There are freestanding birthing centers, outside of hospitals and run by midwives, and there are birthing centers in hospitals that are separate from and managed differently than the labor and delivery unit. In these birthing centers there is no continuous monitoring, no routine IV’s; the midwife and the laboring woman can make decisions much as they would at home. It is important to know that some hospitals have made cosmetic changes in their labor and delivery units and call them birthing centers without changing the protocols that require routine interventions.
The two birthing center sites for Community Midwifery are the Brooklyn Birthing Center (www.brooklynbirthingcenter.com) and the Long Island College Hospital Birthing Center.
Advantages for the Baby
• He of she is more likely to be born vaginally, without the breathing difficulties often cased by caesarean birth or anesthesia.
• There is less likelihood of infection when the baby is with the mother than the newborn nursery.
• The baby’s experience at birth can be recognized and made as gentle as possible. Routine procedures such as deep suctioning, scrubbing the baby, etc. are avoided.
• The baby is not separated from the mother. The mother-infant bond is never sacrificed for institutional procedures.
• Breast feeding is easier to establish when the baby can nurse on demand and not be given bottles. If transfer is necessary, a baby born in the hospital birthing center is closer to an intensive care facility. At Long Island College Hospital Birthing Center, a woman may stay longer than the usual 12-hour stay at a free-standing birthing center.
• At the Brooklyn Birthing Center you may choose a waterbirth. At Long Island College Hospital Birthing Center, waterbirth is not approved, although we are working on it.
| |
Advantages for the Mother
• She is not subjected to routine procedures such as electronic monitoring, IV’s, shave, prep, enema, or stirrups.
• She can eat and walk freely her body working with nature.
• She will have continuity of care with the same attendants, increasing safety.
• She is more likely to be treated and her progress evaluated as an individual, rather than being sacrificed to protocols or statistical averages.
• She is much less likely to need pain-killing drugs, forceps or a caesarean section when she has attendants who feel that birth is a normal physiological function.
• She is comfortable in surroundings that are homelike, where she can labor and deliver in the same bed. Some women fell more relaxed away from the interruptions of home and may have more privacy away from home.
• She has less chance of infection and episiotomy.
• Postpartum depression is more uncommon since there is no separation of mother and baby and when the midwife relationship/support continues well after the birth.
Advantages for the Family
• Partners are in a home-like setting; they can participate as fully as they want.
• Other individuals, including the partners’ children, can be present as appropriate.
• The family can return home shortly after the birth to their familiar space.
Disadvantages
• Requires leaving home, the most familiar setting, which can cause anxiety for some women.
• In an out-of-hospital birthing center access to some emergency equipment can be delayed and require transport .
| |
| Minimizing the Risks
Birth in a birthing center, like birth in the hospital, is not risk-free. You can minimize the risks by:
• Having good nutrition and adequate weight gain, which can help in avoiding high blood pressure and other complications.
• Finding a midwife, who is skilled, confident and experienced in birth in birthing centers.
• Getting good prenatal care.
• Informing yourselves through reading, classes, videos and other resources.
• Making sure that if you have a situation which makes you “statistically high- risk’’ that you and your attendant are well-informed and have taken adequate steps to minimize the chance of your becoming a statistic. For example, some physicians used to say that over 35 was “high-risk,” but studies show no greater incidence of complications with today’s well-nourished “older mothers”. If you plan a medically-managed birth in a hospital and are over 35 and a first-time mother, your chances of a caesarean birth are increased.
• Having adequate support during labor and postpartum.
• Having an emergency back-up plan and numbers posted by the phone.
From “Homebirth as the Standard of Care” By Rahima Baldwin Dancy
Article copyright 2001 by Informed Homebirth, IHIBP@sbcglobal.net.
Used with permission. | |
| |
|
|
|
