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Concept
Birthing center
Summary
A birthing center is a healthcare facility, staffed by nurse midwives, midwives and/or obstetricians, for mothers in labor, who may be assisted by doulas and coaches. The midwives monitor the labor, and well-being of the mother and the baby during birth. Doulas can assist the midwives and make the birth easier. Should additional medical assistance be required, the mother can be transferred to a hospital. This transfer is more likely if an epidural is needed, there is meconium staining, it is a prolonged labor, or the newborn needs intensive care. Some hospitals have birth centers as an alternative to the usual high tech maternity wards.
A birth center presents a more home-like environment than a hospital labor ward, typically with more options during labor: food and drink, music, and the attendance of family and friends if desired. Other characteristics can also include non-institutional furniture such as queen-sized beds, large enough for both mother and father, and perhaps birthing tubs or showers for water births, an option that can help to reduce birthing pains. These centers also offer opioid injections (Pethidine) and Entonox gas as a way to help alleviate pain. The decor is meant to emphasize the normality of birth. In a birth center, women are free to act more spontaneously during their birth, such as squatting, walking or performing other postures that assist in labor. Active birth is encouraged. The length of stay after a birth is shorter at a birth center; sometimes just six hours after birth the mother and infant can go home.
A 2012 Cochrane review compared traditional hospital births with alternative, home-like settings in or near conventional hospital labor wards. In comparison with traditional hospital wards, home-like settings had a trend towards an increase in spontaneous vaginal birth, continued breastfeeding at six to eight weeks, and a positive view of care. The review also found that having a birth at an alternative birth center decreased the likelihood of medical intervention during labor, without increasing risk to mother or child.
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Related publications (8)
Nested stories
The research Architecture and Birth highlights birth centres emergence in France in 2020 as a non medicalised alternative to tensioned maternity hospitals. They must be adjacent to a hospital, and pose the challenge of designing a non-hospital space within ...
2023Extinction In Lower Hessenberg Branching Processes With Countably Many Types
We consider a class of branching processes with countably many types which we refer to as Lower Hessenberg branching processes. These are multitype Galton-Watson processes with typeset X = {0, 1, 2,...}, in which individuals of type i may give birth to off ...
INST MATHEMATICAL STATISTICS2019Functional Central Limit Theorem for the Interface of the Symmetric Multitype Contact Process
Thomas Mountford, Daniel Rodrigues Valesin
We study the interface of the symmetric multitype contact process on Z. In this process, each site of Z is either empty or occupied by an individual of one of two species. Each individual dies with rate 1 and attempts to give birth with rate 2R lambda; the ...
Impa2016Related concepts (3)
Midwife
A midwife (: midwives) is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; concentrating on being experts in what is normal and identifying conditions that need further evaluation. In most countries, midwives are recognized as skilled healthcare providers. Midwives are trained to recognize variations from the normal progress of labor and understand how to deal with deviations from normal.
Natural childbirth
Natural childbirth is childbirth without routine medical interventions, particularly anesthesia. Natural childbirth arose in opposition to the techno-medical model of childbirth that has recently gained popularity in industrialized societies. Natural childbirth attempts to minimize medical intervention, particularly the use of anesthetic medications and surgical interventions such as episiotomies, forceps and ventouse deliveries and caesarean sections.
Doula
A doula (ˈduːlə ) (from Ancient Greek: δούλα, "female slave") (ˈðula) is a trained professional who provides expert guidance for the service of others and who supports another person (the doula's client) through a significant health-related experience, such as childbirth, miscarriage, induced abortion or stillbirth, as well as non-reproductive experiences such as dying. A doula may also provide support to the client's partner, family, and friends.