Home births and hospitals aren’t your only options when it comes to giving birth. This article explores why a birthing center may be the best place of birth choice for some.
There is no day more honorable for a woman than to own and mark her “place of birth”. Comfort, peace, and safety are necessary within the woman’s birthing area to keep this tribal event successful.
All women choose their place of birth for various reasonsbut it is important to recognize us all share one primary purpose when marking our birthing territory; for our babies to come into this world in perfect health and safety.
Journalist Sebastian Junger said, “Giving birth for women is equivalent to fighting on the battlefield for men in terms of risk and ultimate self-sacrifice.”
In essence, he is saying that war and birth go hand in hand. I’d say he’s right, but I’ll expand on his observations.
The current battle of war and childbirth is only the first day of a long battle. When that baby is born, the sacrifice of giving his son to the world just started Just like the feelings and memories that remain with a military veteran until the day he dies when you become a mother, you experience a lifelong battle of sacrificial reward and failure as a parent.
As I paint the painful yet uplifting picture of motherhood, my heart cries out to start this lifelong journey of love and war as easily accessible and as strong as possible, which is why I choose to win my first day of battle in a place where my mind, body, and spirit are more relaxed while feeling the strongest. X marks the place: a birth center.
Author’s note: Whether you’re a mom reading this or a mom-to-be doing research, you’ll soon learn that the place of birth is another pool of potential controversy and politics. But that is if you just let it go and make it so. We can have a preference while also having an open mind.
Before I bring you more of my experience here, I want to be clear that no one is wrong. Depending on their personalities and upbringing, different mothers bring their own needs and desires for risk, safety, naturalness, hope, and autonomy when exploring their birthing options.
There is no one right choice for the general public, but it is generally good practice to consider other people’s reasons for their favorite.
What is a birthing center, anyway?
According to Wikipedia, “A birthing center is a health care facility, staffed by nurse midwives, midwives and/or obstetricians, for mothers in labor, who may be assisted by doulas and coaches. Midwives monitor labor and the well-being of the mother and baby during labor. Doulas can assist midwives and make childbirth easier.
Some believe that a birthing center is a perfect compromise to receive professional care and a more natural, home-like environment.
A mother’s thoughts on birthing centers
I believe The birth center is a perfect happy medium for women seeking medical safety and connection in mind, body, and spirit. Professional care and individual choice. Professional and beautiful naturally. Medical guardrails while your body runs the show.
A birth center falls neatly into the middle of society’s polarized options. Home birth vs. hospital birth. Medicated versus unmedicated. Somehow the internet has found a way to politicize and polarize the most important event in a woman’s life.
Read next: Birth Centers vs. Hospitals: How to Know What’s Right for You
An evolutionary event that used to bring every woman together. The opposite philosophy appears to have taken over. So on preserve and reclaim unity to pregnant mothers in ancient times, I think the birth center was the beginning of the way back.
Why? Well, the birthing center is fine foster real connections. Connection to you and your baby, feeling every aspect of the natural birthing process, thus connecting and bonding with you and your baby.
Connecting with you and your midwives as they treat you with gentleness and defer your choice. Your body, your choice. And the connection to each other as mothers, with little room for judgment for those who choose a hospital or home setting.
Why? Because you both choose a birth center, which does this non-judgmental understanding of other mothers’ choices, inviting empathy, unity, and love between women.
Isn’t this what we are all looking for? Health and safety for our baby, along with a strong connection to each other. We can’t have it all, but I believe we can.
I always feared the thought of birth because I only heard horror stories when I was young. But remember, we only hear horror stories. We are human beings; we eat bad news. Growing up, my brain was filled with phrases like “Childbirth can be dangerous” and “Many people die during childbirth.”
These tragedies happen from time to time but are less likely than we think. I grew up thinking that birth was to be feared, unnatural and normal.
But when I walked into my first appointment at the birth center, I was shocked how pleasant, professional, and charming my midwife was. He is a person. Not a robot. He excitedly walked by my side during my first pregnancy and birth.
He said, “There’s your baby! He is growing at a perfect rate! How can I not love him?! She loves her job, her workplace, she loves babies, and she adores her patients. is it not Is this what any new mother wants for care?
How this mom decided on a birthing center
Allow me to walk you through the thought process of my decision: I knew that giving birth in a hospital would be stressful for meI know I have to support myself on top of, you know, giving birth to a little person.
but, the birth did not resound in the house maybe because the local midwife I called didn’t show the skill of professionalism. Professionalism shows business. And the baby business offers training, and training predicts a successful birth.
Also, the home birth option doesn’t resonate with me; it didn’t feel like my nature. And finding something that aligned with who I am is important. I only want to leave my house during the most extreme events in return to my quiet, peaceful, and cozy home to heal. I liked the separation. I need this. Looking back, I’m glad I stayed in tune with that intuition.
Tips for finding your perfect birthing spot
Research and visit your birthplace, focus on your intuition about the sites or midwives you tour with and go from there. If you ever feel “embarrassed” about a birth place, hospital, or home birth midwife, follow your intuition. Your intuition is always your reliable guide.
I believe that the biggest clues to how you will be treated over the next eight months and the day your baby is born are determined by your first visit at that eight week appointment.
When leaving on a tour, here are some questions you can ask yourself:
- Am I comfortable asking?
- Did the provider or midwife answer my questions?
- How did they pose when I asked?
- Are they rushing or taking their time with me?
- Do they seem to love their work or do they seem stressed?
- How does my body respond to the environment?
- Can I see myself giving birth here in 8 months?
- Did I feel like a special patient or a number to the provider or midwife?
Exploring and answering these questions will lead you to the right place for you and your baby.
Use your intuition to guide your decision on place of birth
My first appointment (at eight weeks) at Charleston Birth Place exceeded my expectations. My body relaxed, and a supernatural sense of peace reside in my heart and towards my growing fetus.
The floor of the birth center looks like a typical Doctors office but is sprinkled with a sense of sweet solitude, vibrant light (literally sunshine), and lots of love.
No worker has ever worn the dreaded lab coat midwives still dress professionally. Nurses and phlebotomists are in scrubs. There are scales, stethoscopes, stirrups, and ultrasound machines, which you need to monitor your and your baby’s vitals.
The essentials, but the least of the medical instruments.
Being in its own wing, no sick people are rolled into your room: just good news, nothing but good news. Midwives bring equal training to Nurse Practitioners; educated, efficient, reliable, and knowledgeable.
Inside the lobby, before a smiling medical assistant ushers you into a private room, prenatal vitamins, and raspberry leaf tea bags sit on the shelves facing you. Not to mention a sheet of homeopathic remedieslike black licorice and dates, to naturally prepare your uterus for birth as you approach your due date.
The following eight months of clinical care were consistent, encouraging, and empowering. They normalized everything and The trending fear-based approach is reversed on its head. Not once did they make me feel like something was wrong, or that my baby was in danger. Not once.
Because of this strategy, their positive reinforcement about my pregnancy and birth began to eat away at the voice that told me that I might die when I gave new life to the world. Not only do they take care of me physically, but they rewire my brain in the process, from a scared brain to a fearless one.
Every mother deserves a victory on the first day of the battle.
