Birthing Center - Birth Centers in The United States

Birth Centers in The United States

Like clinics, birth centers arose on the coasts of the U.S. in the 1970s, as alternatives to heavily institutionalized health care. Today, use of birthing centers is generally covered by health insurance. Several of the practices which were innovated in birth centers are beginning to enter the mainstream hospital labor and delivery floors including:

• Bathtubs or whirlpools for labor and/or birthing
• Showers for mothers to labor in
• Hospital acceptance of the mother choosing to walk during labor, use a labor/birthing ball, not use pain medication during labor and rooming in of the infant after birth
• Beds for family members to stay with the mother during labor and birth

There are certain requirements that a woman needs to meet in order to be able to birth at a birth center. First, she must have an uncomplicated, low-risk pregnancy. Free-standing birth centers require hospital backup in case complications arise during labor that require more complex care. However, even if a delivery can not happen at the birth center due to a high-risk pregnancy, birth center midwives might provide prenatal care up to a certain week of gestation or at the hospital alongside an obstetrician.

The nationwide organization supporting and promoting birth centers is the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) Many birth centers nationwide, like hospitals, chose to become accredited through the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers (CABC) . There are strict guidelines for this accreditation to support birth centers as a place for normal birth. These include things such as no continuous fetal monitoring in labor to allow women full mobility.

There has been much research in recent years to support out of hospital birth- especially birth center birth- as not just safe but at times safer than hospital birth because of its judicious use of technology, licensed professionals and connection to the health care system.