Birthing center pros and cons: The Pros and Cons of Birthing Centers, And Why I Ultimately Chose a Hospital Birth

The Pros and Cons of Birthing Centers, And Why I Ultimately Chose a Hospital Birth

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Inside: If you want a natural, unmedicated birth, a birthing center can be a great choice. However, you should consider both the pros and cons of birthing centers to consider before making a decision. Here is everything I considered about birthing centers before finally deciding on a hospital birth.

Home, hospital or birthing center… which is better for a natural birth as a first-time mom? Since addressing all of those options in one post would be writing a book, we’re just going to tackle birthing centers for now.

Birthing centers come recommended highly by natural birth advocates, especially if you don’t want to do a home birth. But just because it’s recommended doesn’t mean there aren’t pros and cons to consider.

Especially if you are a first-time mom who has never experienced labor and delivery before, a birthing center isn’t always the best option. Having more information from both sides can help you make the best possible decision for YOU (not your doula, not your birth course author, YOU).

After all, it’s your life, your birth, your baby. At the end of the day, the only one’s affected by your decision is you and your family.

So let’s dig into the pros and cons of birthing centers, shall we?

Are Birthing Centers Really Better for Natural Births? (the pros and cons of birthing centers)

We started our prenatal care for our first baby at a local birthing center. I really enjoyed the midwives’ hands-off (and naturally minded) approach to prenatal appointments.

It was important to me that I had a low intervention pregnancy and, ultimately, an unmedicated birth. I felt very supported at the birthing center and appreciated the way they offered medical options after sharing both risks and benefits. 

At 25 weeks, my husband and I decided that, for financial reasons, we needed to transfer prenatal care and birth to the hospital instead of the birthing center.  

I was really disappointed about transferring and was afraid that I wouldn’t achieve a natural birth in a hospital setting. Moreover, I figured I wouldn’t have an easy time sustaining a holistic pregnancy because of medical staff resistance. 

Well, spoiler alert! I ended up highly satisfied with our experience at the hospital. I’ll finish up this post with my thoughts on hospital births, but first, let’s start with all things birthing centers.

Related: Is a Painless, Normal Delivery Possible? Get Pretty Close with These 5 Tips

The Pros of Birthing Centers

1. The medical staff is naturally minded and has a holistic approach that supports and encourages natural birth.

It is so empowering to have an entire team of people all cheering you on to have a natural birth.

It can absolutely a game changer to have a medical staff that supports and encourages your dream of an unmedicated birth.

The best part about having a holistic medical staff is that it doesn’t mean that you won’t be offered any modern medical interventions, it’s just that it’s offered only when necessary.

2. You can labor and deliver in a comfortable, homey room.

At a birthing center, you can labor in a cozy and comfortable room that is more similar to your own home than a hospital.

For many women, this is very important and can allow for labor to progress more smoothly (and faster).

3. Water birth is allowed and encouraged (not banned).

The benefits of water birth are backed by science and thousands of women who have had successful water births.

Water birth can help facilitate feelings of calm, safety and focus. They can shorten labor, reduce the risk of tearing, and more.

So, this is a big perk of birthing centers!

4. They deal with the mess of birth, which you can’t say for home birth where YOU have to deal with it.

Again, I just did not want to have to think about anything other than taking care of my newborn.

I also didn’t want my husband to be distracted with trying to clean up with the house… and for me to be helping him help me with afterbirth cleaning.

5. Birthing centers often offer more personalized care, with the potential to work one-on-one with a midwife.

It would’ve been nice to feel like I was the only person that my midwife/nurse was taking care of. Moreover, for practical reasons, it is good to have one consistent care provider so that your current medical information doesn’t slip through the crack during shift changes.

For example, it would’ve been nice to have only one person following along on our breastfeeding struggles.

Instead, because I was in the hospital, I had to explain what the last few nurses said to do every time a new nurse came in to help me.

The Cons of Birthing Centers

1. You are sent home after an average of 6 hours after birth.

This is both a pro and con – it depends on your birth and preferences.

I distinctly remember bawling my eyes out when I realized about 5 hours after birth that if we were at the birthing center we would’ve been packing up. That thought was so overwhelming (and so were my hormones) to me that I burst into tears.

But, I know women that say they wish they could leave the hospital sooner or that they love that they can go home quickly after birth from the birth center.

So much depends on your own personality and preferences. In addition, you may do just fine with a second or third labor but end up feeling very overwhelmed leaving so early if it’s your first birth.

Editor’s Note: A dear friend delivered her first baby at a birthing center. She was sent home six hours after birth, and then experienced a very strange episode of low sodium where she ended up back in the hospital for a day or so. They thought it was just an odd blip, but it turned out her pregnancy and birth had triggered a rare auto-immune disorder called Addison’s disease. She wouldn’t be diagnosed until more than a year later when she almost died from her symptoms. When I mentioned this post to her, she wondered out loud if she would have been diagnosed sooner had she delivered at a hospital. For her, the one major con of a birthing center (which she otherwise loved) was being sent home too early.

2. There are no meals delivered, no medications administered, and no on-site lactation consultants.

Not having meals delivered really isn’t too bad. No medications being administered is kind of crappy.

But, not having access to lactation consultants is downright terrible. Our firstborn would not have been able to nurse if there weren’t lactation consultants there to help us. 

It is very possible that other birthing centers have more resources for breastfeeding help than I know of.

From what I do know, it would have been very hard for us to start our breastfeeding journey if we were at the birthing center because of our baby’s tongue tie. 

3. Birthing centers have limited medical supplies.

The birthing center is designed to provide holistic care for laboring mothers. That means that the birth center will have some medical supplies but won’t have the more major modern medicinal options available.

This is both a pro and a con in some instances.

For example, even if you do end up wanting an epidural, if you’re at a birthing center it’s not even possible for you to get one unless you’re transferred to the nearest hospital.

For some mothers, it’s helpful that an epidural isn’t even an option. For others, it is scary and far too limiting.

4. You may need to be transferred via ambulance for c-section or any major complications.

Each birthing center has a slightly different protocol for when and why a birthing mother would need to be transferred to a hospital. Either way, it’s a possibility to consider. 

Some birthing centers are located near, and even partner with hospitals to make these instances less scary and go more smoothly. This would obviously be the ideal scenario.

“The National Birth Center Study II showed that on average, about 4.5% of birth center clients will be referred to a hospital before being admitted to the birth center, 11. 9% will transfer to the hospital during labor, 2.0% will transfer after giving birth, and 2.2% will have their babies transferred after birth. About 82% of the women who transfer during labor are first time moms. Fewer than 1% of transfers are for emergency situations.”

-Birth Care Midwifery

5. The cost can be extremely prohibitive – you don’t want to start your parenting journey in debt.

Unfortunately, we live in a day and age when medical insurance still isn’t supportive of natural or holisitic health care. Many insurance companies don’t cover birthing centers as much as they do hospitals.

For us, this was the deal breaker. We did not want to start our parenting journey strapped for cash due to labor and delivery costs.

If you have your heart set on a birthing center, have the money saved, and are willing to put your money into that dream, then go for it. But I would strongly encourage you not to go into debt based on where you deliver – it’s just not worth it, and you can have a successful natural birth in a hospital, too.

Why I Went with a Hospital Instead of a Birthing Center for My Natural Birth

The first major reason was financial. Insurance companies just don’t cover birthing centers the way they cover hospitals, at least not our insurance company.

While that was the original reason, after experiencing natural birth in a hospital, there were several pros to a hospital birth that made me highly likely to choose it again, including:

• Meals are delivered hot and ready, there’s no laundry to be done, and no dishes to do.
• YOUR health is attended to – medications administered, medical care for stitches and such, breastfeeding help, etc.
• Your BABY’S health is attended to – basic health checks, any specific health issues, and basic care (diapering, bottle feeding if needed, bathing, etc.).

In our specific case, I’m very thankful for the postpartum support team for moms, including lactation consultants. Our baby had a tongue tie that we wouldn’t have caught had we not been in the hospital with access to lactation consultants.

Of course, there were major drawbacks to having a natural birth in a hospital, including:

• People being in your room all.the.time. It’s hard to rest.
• While you can labor in a birthing tub, you can not birth in the birthing tub.
• The hospital’s sterile environment doesn’t feel cozy.

The biggest con to a hospital birth is that it can be difficult to follow a natural birth plan and natural afterbirth care with resistant medical staff. Simply put, it can be exhausting, confusing and irritating to feel like you are fighting medical staff to care for your health in a holistic way. 

Our birth went smoothly and without strife because I tried my best to labor at home until the very last minute.

One nurse even said, “Well, she didn’t really give us a chance to even do some of these things. It’s too late.” after reading my birth plan. 

Exactly the point.

After our baby was born, we were immediately given papers to sign, things to do, and were given lectures about standard health procedures that “needed” to be done right then.

My husband was scared and self-doubting all of our research after a doctor came in and explained in detail the worst-case scenario of denying a common medical intervention for newborns that we chose to forgo.

Related: Natural Birth in a Hospital – A Guide to Getting the Birth You Want

Ultimately, You Need to Weigh the Pros and Cons of Birthing Centers Based on Your Unique Situation

We will most likely be having a hospital birth for our next baby.

My experience at this particular hospital was great overall, although I am keenly aware that natural birth experiences vary widely from hospital to hospital.

I think having a natural birth at a birthing center would be lovely for a second birth and/or if it’s financially feasible for you. Having a baby at a birthing center is also a great option if you have ample support and help at home, like if you have a super-dad for a spouse, your mom can come to stay with you, or you’ve hired a postpartum doula.

But at the end of the day, you need to evaluate your specific set of circumstances.

If you have your heart set on a water birth and are willing to put money into that dream, a birthing center is the obvious choice.

But if you are extremely nervous about possible complications, all the homey rooms and personal medical care in the world won’t make up for the security and peace of mind a hospital can provide versus a birthing center that isn’t equipped to handle complications.

If giving birth at a birthing center is going to put you into debt – deep into debt – you may need to seriously consider a hospital birth, even if it’s not your first choice.

Take some time to journal about your dream birth, and consider your personality and that of your partner. Look at your budget and decide just how much the birth you want is worth to you financially.

After you’ve done those things, look over the pros and cons of birthing centers again. See how they line up with the above considerations, and I guarantee you will have more clarity on whether a birthing center is the right option for YOU.

Read Next: 7 Natural Ways to Prepare Your Body for Labor

Kenzie Wright

Kenzie lives with her husband and daughter in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She’s wrestled with infertility, survived a miscarriage, and is overjoyed to finally be a mama to her sweet baby girl she thought she’d never have. She especially loves helping moms who have had miscarriages find hope after loss.

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The Pros and Cons of a Birth Center

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Is a birth center right for you? Weigh the pros and cons of using an alternative setting for your delivery.

You’re not crazy about the sterile, scary setting of a hospital for your baby’s birth, but the lack of medical help at a home birth makes you just as nervous. Birth centers provide an in-between choice for parents who would like to deliver outside of a hospital setting but with more help than they would be able to get at home. Still not sold? Here are the pros and cons of birthing centers.

What Is a Birth Center?
The American Association of Birth Centers defines a birth center as “a home-like facility existing within a health care system with a program of care designed in the wellness model of pregnancy and birth.” Medically trained and licensed staff will help you through labor, but are capable of starting emergency procedures for you or your baby if something should go wrong.

Pros of a Birth Center
 

• You’ll Have Access to Quality Health Care
  Birthing centers will generally have a group of certified midwives and different levels of nurses on staff. They might also have lactation consultants and a connection to a local hospital. “Most birth centers have a group of midwives who share the burden and responsibility of being ‘on call,’” says Aubre Tompkins, a certified nurse midwife. “What this means for the woman in labor is that she will likely have a midwife who is well rested and is well supported with quality time off, so she is not as likely to be exhausted.”
   
• Natural Birth Options are Available
  Birth centers are supportive of natural childbirth with options to aid labor, such as water birth, birthing stools and a relaxing, comfortable home-like environment. Many birth centers allow the woman to guide the labor decisions. If you feel like walking during labor, or taking a shower or resting in a bed, these are all options birth centers typically support.

  Certified nurse midwife Kate Shantz adds that “the laboring woman gets one-on-one attention from the birth team, usually a midwife and an assistant at the minimum. It is a nice alternative for women that aren’t sure they want to birth at home or don’t live in a setting appropriate for birth.”
   

• Help From the Hospital is Nearby
  A hospital connection for quick transfers with minimal wait is possible, should an emergency arise. “Birth centers usually have a relationship of some kind with that hospital so the transfers can go smoothly and happen in a timely manner,” says Tompkins.

  “Unfortunately, with a home birth transfer this may not be the case and valuable time can be lost going through explanations and the emergency room.” This helps ensure birthing centers are a safe alternative to a hospital for delivery and care of the newborn baby.

Cons of a Birth Center
 

• You Might Need to Move
  Unlike a home birth, you’ll need to spend time transferring to and from the center. Plan on staying for a short visit — some parents might find moving back home so quickly stressful. “Like a hospital, you have to leave your home when you’re in labor. Sometimes the move interferes with labor, slowing it down,” says Shantz. “The stay is usually six to eight hours, so just about the time you are ready to snuggle in with your newborn and take a well-deserved nap, you need to move again.”
   
• You Might not Be Eligible if You Have a High-Risk Pregnancy
  A birth center will not be an option if any complications or risk factors are present in the pregnancy. “Birth centers are designed for low risk women and pregnancies,” says Tompkins. “This means women with healthy pregnancies who do not have any major health conditions like heart disease, diabetes or epilepsy for example. They should also be carrying one baby who is head down at onset of labor. The pregnancies should be carried to term, meaning 37 to 42 weeks, for admittance to the center in labor.”

With any pregnancy, prenatal care, delivery and postpartum care choices, it’s vital to do your homework. Tompkins says her best advice to parents “is to do your research! Many people in our current culture spend more time researching their next car purchase than their pregnancy providers and birth place.”

Visit birth centers in your area, ask questions and look at reviews of the centers and the midwives associated with it. Shantz reminds parents, “the key to a successful out-of-hospital birth experience is that both partners are on the same page and comfortable with the place they have chosen.”

For more on birthing options, check out the Top 10 Tips for a Natural Birth.

Kit Arbuckle works as a freelance writer providing information on health, parenting and alternative medicine.

* This article is for general informational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be providing medical advice and is not a substitute for such advice. The reader should always consult a health care provider concerning any medical condition or treatment plan. Neither Care. com nor the author assumes any responsibility or liability with respect to use of any information contained herein.

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Benefits of operating a maternity hospital as part of a multidisciplinary hospital

During pregnancy and childbirth, any disease can be detected in patients, so the close interaction of the antenatal clinic, the maternity hospital and the multidisciplinary hospital is of great importance: patients are observed during pregnancy not only by the doctors of the antenatal clinic, but also, if necessary, by hospital specialists. The uniqueness of City Clinical Hospital No. 52 is that the hospital has all the necessary specialized departments for providing medical care to mothers at the modern level – a nephro-reanimation department with the possibility of using extracorporeal methods of treatment, a neuro-reanimation department, a hematology department, and an endovascular surgery department.

We present a clinical case demonstrating the successful work of a multidisciplinary team of doctors of City Clinical Hospital No. 52.

Patient R., 37 years old, was admitted to the maternity hospital of the branch of City Clinical Hospital No. 52 with a diagnosis of Pregnancy 29-30 weeks. Head presentation. Chronic glomerulonephritis. Chronic renal failure stage 5, terminal phase. Program hemodialysis. Nephrogenic anemia. Secondary hyperparothyroidism. Chronic hepatitis C.

From the history of the disease: for the first time signs of kidney disease appeared at 1999 during pregnancy, but after childbirth was not examined. Since 2007, he has noted an increase in blood pressure up to 160/90 mm Hg, swelling of the lower extremities, and weakness. The examination diagnosed the terminal phase of chronic renal failure. Started renal replacement therapy (hemodialysis) with the formation of a permanent vascular access in one of the regional centers of the Russian Federation.

Since July 2014, she received renal replacement therapy at City Clinical Hospital No. 20, severe hyperparathyroidism was diagnosed, the patient received conservative treatment and was preparing for surgery. In February 2016, a feeling of heaviness appeared in the lower abdomen, she was examined, and a pregnancy of 15-16 weeks was diagnosed.

Taking into account the patient’s desire to maintain the pregnancy, despite the presence of severe extragenital pathology, the patient was referred for registration at the antenatal clinic of the branch of City Clinical Hospital No. 52 and continued outpatient treatment with program hemodialysis on the basis of the 3rd Nephrology Department of our hospital.

06/06/2016 a perinatal consultation was held with the participation of nephrologists of the City Clinical Hospital No. 52: Pregnancy 29-30 weeks. Violation of the uteroplacental blood flow 1 B degree. Taking into account the duration of pregnancy (fetal viability), deterioration of fetoplacental blood flow (subcompensated form of placental insufficiency), severe extragenital pathology, it was decided to routinely perform early delivery by caesarean section in the maternity hospital of the branch of City Clinical Hospital No. 52.

On June 7, 2016, a caesarean section was performed. A live premature baby boy was retrieved, weight 1450 g, height 41 cm. Apgar score 6-7 points. The child was transferred to Children’s City Clinical Hospital No. 13, the patient was discharged home on the 6th day. The child is currently at home with his mother, his weight in 2020 is

Home births, pros, cons, pros and cons

Of course, it’s hard to argue with the tremendous decline in maternal and fetal mortality since hospital births using anesthesia, stimulants, and caesarean sections.

However, this approach became more and more negligent, since almost every obstetrician-gynecologist tried to artificially speed up the birth process, the newborn was taken from the mother immediately after birth, and the nurses kept shouting at the exhausted mothers.

Only by the beginning of the 2000s, the concept of childbirth in our country began to improve. Finally, it became clear that the hospital walls, the lack of comfort and the associated stress of the woman in labor are the cause of the complications during childbirth, which have been so diligently tried to get rid of for many years.

When a pregnant woman gives birth in a comfortable environment, this automatically reduces the risk of complications and the need for anesthesia or surgery. According to statistics, only 10% of births take place with the involvement of medical assistance.

But every year maternity hospitals change their attitude towards mother and child, offering comfortable conditions and a friendly atmosphere. And if you need the help of a surgeon or resuscitator, everyone will respond instantly.

Benefits of home birth

Psychological and physical comfort provided by home environment. Something similar can be obtained in a private clinic, but for a lot of money, which not everyone has.

Participation of a beloved man, parents or girlfriends in the process of childbirth, up to cutting the umbilical cord.

Choosing the position in which a woman wishes to give birth to a child: lying on her side, squatting, standing on all fours.

You can also lie on your back in the old fashioned way, but only this position has long been considered the most unfortunate for childbirth.

Personal midwife or OB/GYN who looked after the woman throughout her pregnancy.

Natural methods of pain relief: favorite music, warm bath, massage.

No risk of contracting infections from strangers (staphylococcus, measles, etc.) assigned photographer.

Why doctors are against

Home births can lead to health risks not only for the woman in labor but also for the baby. After all, the process can be unpredictable even with full physical health during previous examinations.

Moreover, future mothers who want to have a baby at home are supporters of everything “natural”. Therefore, they may categorically refuse to accept third-party assistance in the form of induction of labor or caesarean section, which are sometimes simply necessary and can save the life of a child.

The death of a newborn at home can occur for a number of reasons. Mostly from hypoxia. It is also worth mentioning the infection, for example, due to non-compliance with all the rules of sterility.

Unable to perform an emergency caesarean section. This is not so difficult for a midwife, but not everyone can track the moment at which surgical intervention is required.

Hemorrhage that has started and cannot be given a blood transfusion. Such a procedure can only be done in a hospital, even emergency doctors do not have the right to do a transfusion. As a last resort, the midwife may give an injection of oxytocin to stimulate the uterus, which still does not guarantee help.

Weak labor activity. In this case, the woman in labor needs artificial induction of labor or a caesarean section, but home obstetricians in most cases are opposed to this type of assistance.

Lack of pediatric resuscitation. In case of severe hypoxia or other complications, it is far from always possible to deliver the child to the maternity hospital.

Unprofessional midwife, which is not uncommon. Adherents of home birth, helping mothers in their difficult work, sometimes do not have a medical education, believing that “nature will help.