Hospital, Birthing Center, or Home birth... is that the question?

Whenver you talk about birth, the question of where a woman gives birth always comes up. Should it be at a hospital, birthing center, or at home? Now I will admit that I am biased when it comes to this question because I had a great experience at a birthing center. I know dozens of women who also had wonderful experiences at birthing centers. I know lots of women who have had hospital births. Some were fine with their experience, and others were not. Of course you don't hear women talking about how they loved their hospital experience, but you do hear it about birthing centers. Hhmm... I know 3 women who have had homebirths, but that is as far as my experience goes with that. Now my bias aside, I feel like this is the wrong question to be asking. The question should be how you birth, not where. When I have talked with women about this I always tell them that if they are convinced that natural birth is best for mom and baby and that is how they want to devilver, then they need to put themselves in a place that supports that. If they don't care about natural birth, then they will most likely be delivering at a hospital because that is pretty much the only place that will give them pain medication. Birthing Centers (and home births) are designed to help a woman labor and deliver naturally. In most cases this is where a woman will get the support and reassurance she needs to be succesful in labor and delivery without pain medicine. Now it is possible to give birth naturally in a hospital. In fact I know 6 or 7 women who have done it. But I do believe this is very much NOT the norm! In my opinion, hospitals don't really care if you give birth naturally or not.. in fact they may prefer if you don't because then they have a little more control over the timing if it all. I had a friend who wanted to give birth naturally. She discussed this with her doctor, and they seemed to be on the same page. 1 day past her due date her doctor wanted to induce her because he thought the baby was going to be over 8 lbs. Of course once pitocin was used it made it virtually impossible for her to labor naturally. She recieved an epidural (who can blame her in this case?) and when the baby was born, it weighed under 7 lbs. All that intervention when it wasn't needed and it ruined her abilty to labor naturally. The doctor was clearly not on the same page. May I remind you that baby size doesn't always matter when it comes to natural birth. My daught was 8lbs 12oz. In fact I know one mother who choose to deliver naturally in a hospital. She pushed for over 5 hours because her baby's head was so big. But he was born naturally and afterward her doctor told her that she saved herself a c-section by doing it naturally. If she wouldn't have had feeling (an epidural), she wouldn't have been able to deliever him. Again I think it goes back to the mindset of women can't do it, and that mindset is found in hospitals more often than in birthing centers or at home births. The national average for c-sections is about 30%. Every hospital and birthing center will have their own stats. When I delievered my daughter the hospital's c-section rate was about 20%, and my birthing center had a 4% transfer rate and a 2% c-section rate. Meaning that out of the 4% of women who were transfered to a hospital, half of that 4% had a c-section! I am much more comfortable with those numbers! 2% compared to 20%? I think it is a great testimony to the birthing center.

Birthing centers and home births are most often attended by midwives. And of course everyone always asks the question, "what if something goes wrong?" If you have had a heathly, normal pregnancy, there is no reason to expect anything to go wrong. And IF somehing did go wrong, midwives are prepared to do what is necessary to get you and baby what you need. There are some high risk women who can't birth out of hospital. And midwives know this. I think people assume that midwives just take anybody, anywhere, anytime and they have no concept of what might be dangerous or not. Let me remind you that all that a midwife does surrounds birth. They are experts in normal birth. They don't take foolish risks, and they don't pretend to be able to handle things outside the range of their ability. If you come across a midwife who does do these things, then you need to find a different one. And I will say the same thing for any doctor as well.


This is all based on the experiences and conversations I have had with other women. I am convinced that natural birth is God's design for women, and it is filled with tremendous blessings. A woman needs to be supported and encouraged in her decision to birth naturally because it is not the norm for our society and culture. So my advice is find where to birth, by seeing who will support how you want to birth. That might end up being in a hospital, birthing center, or at home. Sadly I think most women make this choice bast on their insurance rather than their own well-being. (side note: Birthing centers and home births are usually much cheaper than hospitals, even without insurance!) Every woman should look into the options available to her. Check their birthing stats and records, find the team of peole you feel will do the best job. Don't settle for what everyone else is doing. This is your birth and your baby. Make it what you want it to be.

Carrie