Birthing Center or Hospital
TheaRae
member
As I am nearing my due date I am finding myself having cold feet about a hospital delivery. I am hoping to have a natural birth with no medications, I am currently seeing a midwife for care at a local hospital and she is wonderful and has assured me I can have the delivery that I want here at the hospital, however the midwife who delivered my first child just opened a birthing center in my area as well. I am hoping to have a water birth, and would like to be less bothered by nurses and what not. The pros to the birth center are more natural experience, water birth and other unique options avaible for labor, delivery, and post baby... Pros to hospital, if I need an epurdural for any reason it is avaible, longer stay for baby & I, help with breast feeding, food provided, and help for self or baby if situations arise.
The birthing center allows us to leave same day with midwife providing in home visit @ 24, & 72 hours... followed by traditional post baby visits. Have you experienced both settings when having a child or do you have a prefrence... both of these options are covered by my insurance... and with 10 weeks left I really need to get this figured out.
Re: Birthing Center or Hospital
This is my story exactly. Delivered with an amazing midwife at a hospital, and everything went to shit in the final hour. I am so glad there were respiratory specialists and a pediatrician right there on site to save DS' life (and ultimately transfer him to a more sophisticated NICU). If something had gone wrong at the birthing centre, I don't think I ever could have forgiven myself.
That being said, I have many friends who have had very successful birthing centre and home birth deliveries. I'm happy for them and I'm sure they made the best choice for their families. But me? Hospital please. I'd deliver this baby IN THE NICU if they'd let me.
Oscar born October 2011
Miscarriage at 8 weeks (August 2013)
DD due September 1, 2014
Married Bio * BFP Charts
No no, it wasn't at anyone in particular. Just a lot of times when out-of-hospital birth is discussed there are lots of "my baby would've died if born out of a hospital" stories, and who knows, maybe they're right - no one can know that - but I feel like the implication that can come across is that midwives don't/can't handle emergencies. Sometimes the way women tell their story it's like they think if they'd been at a birth center the midwife would've just been like, "oh darn, there's a problem, I guess I lost another one." I'm being facetious, of course, but you get the idea. It can be really scary for a mom considering a home/birth center birth to hear hose stories without understanding how emergencies are handled by midwives out of (or en route to) a hospital.
To be fair, however, there are a lot of stories where a midwife at a freestanding birth center or home birth was absolutely ill-equipped to handle the delivery or any emergencies that arose, and these stories have terrible outcomes. Not all midwives and birth centers are created equally, and depending on state regulation of midwifery, that midwife may have no medical training or education and not much more than a high school diploma. I live in Oregon, and there are some absolutely shocking stories surrounding homebirths or birth center births gone wrong. The situation is so bad that the state now requires information on intended place of birth on all birth certificates, and in 2012 documented a perinatal mortality rate for out of hospital births that is 3-4 times higher than comparable low-risk hospital births.
FWIW, OP, the only birth center I would even consider would be an accredited birth center staffed by certified nurse midwives, integrated into the hospital system for fast transfers (otherwise it's not likely you'll get transferred and sectioned within 20 minutes), and carrying adequate malpractice/liability insurance. Even so, consider this: if it's a dire emergency like abruption, cord prolapse, or shoulder dystocia, do you think 20 minutes from 9-1-1 to delivery is quick enough? Could you hold your breath for 20 minutes? Could your baby?
Married Bio * BFP Charts
The hospital is about 10 minutes by ambulance from the Centre. My midwife wanted to call 911 in the last 10 minutes because ds wasn't coming down and his heart rate was slowing. She also wanted to give me an epistomy (sp) but I kept saying no and she knew I didn't want one. But things were getting bad quick and there was a short window to get him out.
Luckily I got ds out in minutes after that and he's healthy. But. It could have gone differently. Very differently.
However. Should I have another child I will go back to the birth Centre unless there is a reason otherwise.
In the end it doesn't matter where when how or why. What matters is a healthy baby.