If you like the familiar setting and emotional involvement of your family in your home, but feel reassured by the medical attention available in a hospital, you may want to consider giving birth in a birth center.
A birth center provides midwifery care in a comfortable, non-institutional setting. Couples and families are completely involved in the prenatal care. Together they attend classes to prepare them for the birth.
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During labor and delivery the birth center lets the family participate, and they share time together afterward in the same setting. The birth center is staffed by certified nurse midwifes or direct entry midwifes. A team of obstetricians is on hand to provide assistance should it be required. Should an incident requiring more sophisticated medical attention be required, you will be transferred to hospital.
In order to ensure that the transfer rate remains low, you will be screened to check that you are low risk and will be able to return home with twenty-four hours of giving birth. All birth centers are different and to make sure that you have an uninterrupted delivery you should ask what the transfer rate to hospital during labor is.
To find a birth center in your area, contact the National Association of Childbearing Centers. Also check with your doctor whether giving birth in a birth center is right for you.
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