Birthing center pro-con

karebarecuddler

Hi, I'm ttc but I have already started looking into birthing centers for when I do have children. I have done a lot of research and have found that birthing centers have a decrease in a need for c-sections, requests for epidurals, and often less than 1/3rd the cost of a hospital stay. My big concern is respect for my decisions when it comes to my pregnancy, I want natural birth, kangaroo method, no antibiotics in the eyes etc. Who here has any stories (good or bad) about a birthing center? I just wanna see if it's more of a pipe dream.

marriedinaugust

Most birthing centers align with the natural philosophy. Also one of the reasons their csection rates are lower is they only take low risk patients and they don't offer epidurals. We had an amazing natural hospital birth with our first but recently moved so we sought out a birthing center so we didn't have to look for an OB/hospital that aligned with our natural views.

I am talking about free standing birth centers with midwives not the birth centers that are within some hospitals. I have no experience with those.

aboodtobe

I completely agree with @marriedinaugust that most birth centers only take low risk patients. What you'll want to do is to ask these exact same questions for your intended birth center. Our local birth center is not a free standing one and had just as high of a c-section rate as our local hospital. However, it did have other benefits that our local hospital did not. 

My suggestion is to try to get your OB/GYN care at your birth center before you conceive. That way you can get a feel for the place, establish a relationship with your care provider, and get your questions answered. 

Good luck!

FrodaBaggins

There is a freestanding birth center in our area that gets amazing reviews. Midwives handle all your pre and post natal care. The biggest pro I could see about it was not just that I would be more likely to have the birth I want/envision, but that it was only $8000 all-in! However, insurance would not go for it. Even though it would actually be cheaper for them. *sigh* But I do hear women in my city talking about how great birth centers like this are. I think you'd be able to get what you're looking for from one!

catsinawindow

Here were my pros/cons for choosing a freestanding birth center over a hospital (and I just had a wonderful un-medicated birth at the center last month!)  

Pros:

Personalized care from a wonderful group of midwives

Ability to labor in a birthing tub

Less push for interventions/ better statistics regarding use of interventions

More comfortable, home-like atmosphere

Getting to go home after 4-12 hours (I stayed 5 hours after the birth)

Lower co-pay

Not having to deal with waiting rooms, triage, etc.

Not needing to fight for several points on my birth plan (they were standard procedure at the birth center, but not the hospital).

Being able to say that I had my daughter in the "Forest Room" and seeing her name on the wall 

:P

Cons:

In the slim chance that something tragic would happen having to deal with the "what ifs" of being out of hospital (even though I know, statistically, birth centers are just as safe, if not safer than hospital birth).

Dealing with the disappointment of a non-emergent hospital transfer either during or before labor (this was a big deal for me because I was at a higher risk of having issues than most due to my history of pre-eclampsia)

Not having someone cooking me 3 meals a day while I'm recovering in the hospital (although, for me, this was totally not worth the annoyance of a hosptial stay).

For me, the pros definately outweighed the cons.  And I had a beautiful, unmedicated birth at the birth center with my daughter.  I am so, so glad that I chose the birth center.

duckie23

I'm a patient at a birth center that's literally right across the street from a hospital. Since they are part of the same network, I'll go there for my ultrasounds, and the birth center does have some rules they need to follow to keep to stay open (transfer if traces of meconium are found when water breaks, inducing labor if the water breaks but labor hasn't begun for 16 days, etc.)

What's nice, though is that they only do natural births, no pitocin, epidurals, etc. They have big comfortable bedroom-like birthing room and bath tubs. They don't use electronic fetal monitoring, and they let you and your baby leave when you're ready (no mandatory overnight stay). 

If you find a birth center you're interested in, set up an appointment to specifically ask them what's allowed/not allowed and when/how they would transfer to a hospital.