Home Birth
Some couples have a strong desire to give birth at home, in a familiar, comfortable, and safe environment. The ability to control the environment and birth-related decisions are important factors that lead couples to choose a home birth. If you choose this method, ensure that a qualified midwife or physician will attend you and that emergency transportation to a nearby hospital is available. In addition, seek extra support during the postpartum period to help out around the house and in the nursery. Be aware that most doctors advise against home birth because of the inability to handle unexpected medical complications. If you live more than a half-hour away from a hospital, home birth may not be the ideal choice.
Birthing Center
A birthing center combines the comfort of home with medical technology for a natural birth experience that is personal and comfortable. Usually a birthing center is an independent facility that is nearby, or sometimes housed inside, a hospital. Certified nurse-midwives provide most of the care and a physician is on call for emergencies.
Mothers often labor, deliver, and recover in the same room, rather than moving from room to room in a hospital. Birthing rooms are furnished like bedrooms, simulating the comfort of home. Often, the bed is large enough for a partner and the room is equipped with a pullout sofa for family members, as well as a newborn crib for the baby.
A birthing center fosters a natural, personal atmosphere where questions and self-help are encouraged. Women are free to choose their attendants (including friends and older children), unlike at many hospitals, which restrict attendants to family members. The staff helps to inform, educate, and attend to psychosocial needs, and labor is managed without unnecessary technological interference. Most birthing centers provide access to pain relieving drugs, but there is no pressure to use them. In addition, breastfeeding and maternal contact encouraged immediately after birth.
Generally, birthing centers are equipped for uncomplicated deliveries in normal, low risk pregnancies. However, a birthing center may not be able to meet your needs should an unexpected complication occur. Most birthing centers prescreen potential patients for risk factors for complications (such as the baby in a breech position, complications in previous pregnancies, multiple pregnancies, diabetes, hypertension, genital herpes, premature labor, or Rh blood incompatibility).
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