Yep it was on Today:

Childbirth options
Tuesday September 4, 2007

A new Australian study has revealed babies born in midwife run birthing centres have lower death rates when compared with those born in traditional hospitals.

Midwifery researcher Hannah Dahlen joins TODAY to discuss the results of the study.

"The study was done from 1999 until 2002 and it confirmed the centres provide safe care, if not safer than standard maternity units," explains Ms Dahlen. "Babies born in birth centres had a lower death rate than those born in hospitals according to a new Australian study of more than 1 million births."


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The research paper is called 'Birth Centres in Australia: A national population-based study of prenatal mortality associated with giving birth in a birth centre.' "It has just been published in one of the leading Journals in the world called 'Birth'," she says.

"The study is about the safety of having a baby in a birth centre in Australia," she says. "We looked at four years of births in Australia (over one million) of which 21,800 gave birth in a birth centre."

"The conclusion is that women who are low risk can give birth in a birth centre knowing it is as safe if not safer than a delivery ward," reveals Ms Dahlen.

Birth centres are staffed and run by midwives and offer care to women with uncomplicated pregnancies. "The centres have a philosophy of supporting normal birth with the least intervention possible," according to Ms Dahlen. "They use water and massage and gas mostly for pain relief and women can be transferred to the delivery ward if they need an epidural."

"In Australia the centres are usually located in a hospital so if there are any complications a doctor is called or they are transferred to the delivery ward for medical assessment."

"Ultimately, birth centres are midwife run and doctors only come in them when asked due to a problem," explains Ms Dahlen. "Low intervention rates mean that women are mainly encouraged to be mobile during labour, not stuck on a bed hooked up to a machine and use natural methods of pain relief to help prevent complications."

"We have known for some time that birth centres lead to more normal birth and fewer dangerous medical interventions with higher satisfaction and higher rates of breastfeeding," she says, "but now we can say they also are very safe for mothers and babies."