I voted no for myself but I am totally supportive women choosing where they birth. Unfortunately where I live the birth centre is so difficult to get into!

I wanted to add too that I had a dream "healthy" pregnancy - certainly no risk issues - with lots of preparation - which was followed by an extremely trecharous birth - so I agree with those that said low risk pregnancy does not mean low risk birth.

I was actually booked into a midwife program and birth centre to have my bub and changed to private hospital and obstetrician at the last minute as I had heard a few stories that made me think it wasn't for me. One reason was that the birth centre actually send mums home a few hours after birth - now I know that would suit lots of people to a tee - but for me I really felt like I wanted some after care, help with breastfeeding, and a good rest without the distractions of home.

In the end I was happy with my choice...my obs respected my desire to labour without intervention and my care was mostly by midwives in the hospital. My DDs birth was difficult and I only narrowly avoided a caesarean. The truth of the matter is that she was truly stuck in my pelvis and 100 years ago with out the current medical care we probably both would have died.

As it turns out I really needed that intensive care provided by the private hospital as I could barely walk and needed regular pain relief.

So Yes to choice but No for me personally.