Birth centers

[loulabelle]

I am not pregnant or even TTC # 2 yet but I am curious....

I have only known 4 ladies personally that have been booked into the same Victorian Birth center and not one of them gave birth there.3 ended up with c/s and when my sister was in labor there was no one working in the Birth center so she ended up having a forceps delivery in the hospital.

After a bad experience giving birth in hospital, for my next I am desperate to have a birth center/water birth.So my question is, how often do you actually get to go in the birth center? Maybe I would be better off organising a home birth.

What are your experiences with them?Have you booked in and not been able to use it?Or did get to?

No urgency to answer,I am just curious!

xx

[Nelle]

I planned to have Riv at my Family Birth Centre and it was a beautiful waterbirth, we got there with 3 hours to spare and I spent all that time in the bath. Amazing.

I planned to have Si in the same place but he came rather quickly and I had him at home under the shower (not even time to run a bath).
But I did find out that with Si - all of the birth centre baths were in use - as far as I know, I would still have had birth centre staff, and I could have tried for a waterbirth in one of the other hospital baths, or used a shower.

Given the speed of my second labour, I would consider a homebirth for the next, but who knows.

When you do fall (or before, if you're really thinking of a homebirth, so you can save) - ask the birth centre these questions - are they staffed 24/7, what happens if the facilites are full, etc.

[chocolatecatty]

I had Ceri in a birth centre (Angliss Family Birth Centre) and was super super happy with everything. I got there just in time for her birth (12 minutes after arriving) but they still had time to run the spa and I had a gorgeous waterbirth. My midwife was very hands off and relaxed which was fantastic. For example, I practically had to beg her for a VE before I jumped in the spa (just to reassure myself I was good to go!), and given most women hate VE's, well, they'd probably love the birth centre!

From what I hear, there's only about ten different midwives working there and they're all trained for the birth centre, opposed to normal midwives on the labour ward who may not be so patient or helpful if you're after a natural birth.

Given only 2% births occur in birthing centres (maybe even less), I wouldn't think they'd be hard to get into.

Birth centre policy is that once a complication arises you must go to the labour ward so you have access to the equipment and obs, so I'm guessing your freinds all had complications and had to be moved accordingly?

[BellyBelly]

The chances of you having a normal birth are much higher at home, and now Victoria has only three metropolitan birth centres. The Mercy has a 50% transfer rate, the Angliss is the lowest and has independent midwives working there, but when my sister birthed there, the midwife on had never done a waterbirth and had to find someone else! You can only have a waterbirth at the Angliss or Monash. Transfer rates can be a mix of things, hospital policy, woman's request (epi etc), support/education they have etc.

I'd interview some IM's and see how you feel with their philosophies matching with yours, ask their transfer rates etc and if they have done any/many waterbirths. Then you can decide when you know how both work

[chocolatecatty]

Oh they're independant at the Angliss? I didn't know that! Maybe it's only the same ten who do the pre/postnatal appointments then. Does that mean you could hire one for your next birth if you were wanting a homebirth? That's an easy way to find one....through experience!

[BellyBelly]

Only a couple of IM's work there not all of them!

[Tobily]

Alot will depend on the individual set up of the BC you've chosen. Some are very tightly controlled and bound by restrictive policies, others have much more independence.

The BC in Brisbane for example (we only have one ) is inside the hospital maternity ward and is quite tied up in hospital red tape - it doesn't take much for a woman to get booted out and back into the regular system.

You'll need to talk with them and ask them about their exclusion policies to find out what your risk is of ending up back in the system. Then you can decide whether that risk is acceptable to you, or whether you want to look at other options.

GL