Birth centre or hospital?

Question

I am 21 weeks pregnant and made the decision to give birth at my local birth centre. (I am in the UK.) However, I am getting increasingly worried at the prospect of giving birth in a non medicalised unit, for fear anything should go wrong and my baby, or myself, should need urgent intervention. (The nearest hospital is a 30 minute car journey.) Another concern is that new mums are sent home on the same day. What are your thoughts on this?

Babycakes, I chose the birth centre when I first learnt I was pregnant, for its proximity and because I liked the idea (and still do!) of giving birth in a more 'relaxed' environment. I also didn't know back then that the centre did not have the facilities to keep the new mums overnight.

Answer 1

all birth center are affiliated w/ a hospital just incase something is to go wrong. it is a much more relaxed environment. and why wouldnt you want to be home that same day, and sleep in your own bed. you have to go home at some point. you should express your concerns to the person taking care of you at the birth centre and make the decision for yourself, but honestly i say birthcentre, as long as you are a low risk pregnancy

Answer 2

Just because it's medicalised doesn't make it better. I wanted to give birth at a birthing centre but on the night there were not enough midwives.
My experience in hospital was that the birth was OK and the midwife was great. However, the aftercare was poop. The healthcare staff who were supposed to be helping to coax my son to breastfeed thought that shoving him on my breast was a good idea. When this didn't work they made me feel like a right idiot by insisting that I express the colosturum by hand and pipet in onto my baby's lips. They would not let me leave until he had a full feed twice. He was tired when he was born and when he had a rest, and i'd had a rest everything was fine. The pressure that is put on you at the hospital is disgusting and they treat you like s***t. Next time I will be in charge and give birth where and how I like and with the care I request, not what someone has forced on me.

Answer 3

medicalised birth more frequently leads to more complications according to the research! if you want a "normal" birth as close as possible without "interventions" then i suggest a birth centre. Hospitals DO have the extra equipment - but are busier, more likely to intervene due to "slow progress" ie - not giving you enough time etc

read any book by Shelia Kitzinger
or Ina May Gaskin (who incidentally has a c-section rate of less than 2%) and they will tell you it is SAFER to give birth in a less medicalised environment

why have we all lost faith in our ability to girth birth safely and normally ?- yes complications do arise - but loads are actually Caused by medicalisation! read the research........ but birthing centres are the place if you are against delivering at home.

Many prospective parents, particularly those having a first baby, dismiss the idea of having a home birth because they think that it is not as safe as a hospital birth. However, research shows that a planned home birth is safe for healthy women having a normal pregnancy compared with being in hospital. if home is not for you then birthing centre is next best thing.

hospitals are for sick people!

Answer 4

I'd do it in a birth center in a heartbeat. Birth is not a medical event (unless you do have some medical issues, then yes it's safer to deliver in a hospital) Birth centers and homebirths have been proven to be safer, if not safer, than hospital births for the low risk women. Once you set foot into a hospital, your risk of unnecessary interventions and c-section go way up. Plus you are entering a hospital, a hospital is where SICK people go. Are you sick? no you are pregnant, pregnancy is NOT an illness, (unless you do have some certain medial issue) its a normal life event. Have you heard of the risk of getting infections going around hospitals now? you want to risk your newborn getting this staph infection or other illnesses floating around.

Answer 5

Personally, I felt much safer in the birth center than in the hospital. Too many of the hospital interventions cause conplications. Here in the U.S. the infant mortality rate is much better for birth centers than at the hospital. All the postpartum complications I had were after three days, so I would have been at home anyway. I had a thyroid crisis at five days postpartum and if I had a hospital birth, they would have already sent me home before then.

Answer 6

I wanted to have a home birth as I was terrified of going in to hospital. However, the hospital was only 5 mins drive from our house. Becasue of high blood pressure, they ended up admitting me to hospital and inducing me. My labour was fairly straightforward but when it came to pushing, my daughter just would not come out. Lucky for me, she was quite happy staying there and never had any decreased heart rate or anything like that. But in the end, I had to have a ventouse delivery as I had been pushing for nearly an hour and a half and as a general rule in the UK, you should only push for an hour. When she was born, her hand was by her chin and the midwife said that she would never have been born without help of the ventouse. Obviously can't have a doctor on hand at home with a ventouse or forceps so I was lucky to be in hospital. To be honest, next time, I would want to go into hospital. They are the experts and the thought of having to be driven to hospital in case of emergency when in excruciating labour pains just doesn't bear thinking about. Good luck with your baby and talk over your concerns with your midwife.

Answer 7

I tend to think hospital - just in case. Here in Australia, some hospitals have birthing centres so you can still be close to help if necessary. I would go and visit the hospital (to see if you like the environment and if they have birth pools, allow music, have bean bags etc to create the environment that you want), talk to the mid wives and write up a birth plan and get your partner to understand what you want so that they can talk for you when you cant speak for yourself. If your partner can't do that, take in a friend or even look into getting a doula who can help to create a less clinical environment.

Answer 8

Your concerns is exactly why i chose to give birth in a hospital - it was very relaxed and lovely - and the medical intervention was there incase we needed it - i nearly had to have a c-section!!
If your hospital is a good 30 minutes away i would reconsider, you can still have everything the way you want it, its just if anything does happen then you are in the right place for them to sort it! :-) and to take care of you
i was discharged the same day. i was admitted 11:15pm , gave birth 01:24am and discharged at 8:30pm that night so if all is well in a hospital you can be discharged the same day as well.

Answer 9

I had the same dilemma. I finally decided on the hospital because I didn't want to have fear of something going wrong the whole time, and if something did go wrong I didn't want to put my baby at risk. Besides, the hospital I went to was very accomadating to my wishes and was much like a home birth center.

Answer 10

Honestly, I'd love to say birth centre (especially as an NCT devotee), but I'm going to say hospital. Just to be on the safe side.