YOu do have many child birth options. Learn what a free-standing birth center offers for the birth of your baby and how it compares to a hospital delivery.
The term birth center is often heard in conjunction with a hospital so people assume the two are the same. While hospitals do have birthing centers within their facilities, they are vastly different from a free-standing birth center.
The difference lies in the location, first of all. A hospital may name their labor and delivery unit a birth center but it is still on the property of the hospital and within the confines of the structure itself. A free-standing birth center is one separated from the actual hospital. Many are a distance away even. The idea is that women delivering at a free-standing birth center have less risk factors and do not need the medical conveniences of a hospital.
A birth center does not provide the option of epidurals in labor. Women who choose to deliver at a free-standing birth center usually do so for the more natural non-interventive approach to childbirth. Midwifes attend these births and bring with them their hands-off approach and letting a woman's body deliver a baby like it was meant to.
Free-standing birth centers often provide alternative care compared to a hospital. They are typically the facilities which offer waterbirths and other childbirth options. Flexibility in labor and delivery is more easily obtained in a free-standing birth center giving pregnant moms and their families more of their own choices to make, like varying positions for delivering their baby.
Birth centers offer a more personalized environment as they don't have the volume that hospitals do. Women leave sooner than they do hospitals and they are less likely to encounter changing staff members. The possibility is great that the same people will be with you during both labor and delivery.
Breastfeeding is likely to be more supported in such a birth center and since more personalized attention is available, chances are you and your baby will be off to a good start.
Newborn exams can be done in your room in most birth centers. Since there is no nursery your baby can be kept with you for as long as you like.
You get to have more control in a free-standing birth center than you do in a hospital. There are less set protocol to be followed and thus less restrictions on you and your family's decisions.
If you want to eat during labor, as long as your midwife will allow it you will be able to. In a hospital, nurses are apt to restrict your eating based on the standing orders of a physician.
Another advantage, related to lower volume of women delivering in a birth center, is that infection is less likely with fewer people coming and going from the facility. Hospital-acquired infections are quite common and newborn babies are certainly more susceptible.
