What Do Birthing Centers Offer?
If you are seeking a natural labor experience without unnecessary medical intervention, but do not want to give birth at home, a birthing center is a good option for you to consider. Birthing centers offer a safe, comfortable place for women with low-risk pregnancies to deliver their babies.
Birthing centers offer many benefits to a laboring mother that cannot be found at home or in a hospital.
* Birthing centers offer the new parents a sense of involvement and control. Laboring mothers are not subject to routine medical interventions, such as IVs or continuous fetal monitoring, which often require the mom to stay in bed through much of the labor process. Instead, mothers have the freedom to move about as they please, and to labor and give birth in any position that is comfortable to them. Moms are also allowed to eat and drink throughout labor if they choose to do so.
* Birthing centers provide a lot of encouragement to have a drug-free birth. The attending nurses and midwives are trained to coach the new mother through her labor and help her deliver naturally. However, if a mom elects to receive medication to help with the pain of child birth, analgesic drugs, such as Demerol or Nubane are available. Epidurals require an anesthesiologist and are not available at a birthing center.
* Birthing centers allow the new parents to decide who they want in the delivery room with them. Where a hospital may limit the number of visitors that are allowed at one time, a birthing center lets the new mom and dad choose who to allow in the room and when to allow them in.
* Birthing centers provide a comfortable environment for the laboring mom. Rooms are large and comfortable, with a bed big enough to share with her partner. There is often a kitchen available for new parents to store and prepare food. The room decor creates a soothing environment. Many rooms offer whirlpool tubs to help ease the pain of labor.
* Birthing centers make breastfeeding support and education a priority. They provide breastfeeding information and education throughout the prenatal period, and offer help and encouragement during your stay at the center and through follow-up visits once you are at home.
* Birthing centers allow mothers to head home as soon as they are ready. Unlike hospitals, there is no requirement that a mother stay for a certain number of hours or days. As long as mom and baby are doing well, they are free to stay as long as they like and head home when they are ready.
* Birthing centers also offer a sense of safety and security though the birthing process. Moms are attended by certified midwives and nurses, who have an obstetrician on call should it be necessary to transfer the laboring mother to a hospital at any point. IVs, oxygen and infant resuscitation equipment are always on hand at the center, should they ever be needed.