help me evaluate this birth center

[sarahr]

I'd really like a home birth, but we're having some work done on our house and there's no guarantee that the work will be done by the time the baby's born, so we're looking into birth centers as well. But I don't know how to evaluate the information I learned.

The midwives see people who want to give birth both in the birth center and in a nearby hospital. About 30% of their total births choose the birth center. Of the ones that choose the birth center, they have a 10% transfer rate, and the most common reason is mother's exhaustion. Each birth room (there are two) has a jacuzzi tub, and you can stay in the tub to give birth. Their overall c-section rate is 9%.

For the prenatal appointments, everyone who is due in a given month (both hospital and birth center) has appointments at the same time. The first part is meeting with the midwife individually, and then there's a group meeting.

Since so many of their births intend to go into the hospital and don't necessarily want a natural birth, I was worried that they'd be overly medical, but I'm not sure how to evaluate that.

[Yiskah64]

Sounds great to me!

[DoulaVallere]

It sounds pretty good to me. Can you go and interview the head midwife and voice your concerns to her? Maybe try to find out things in a non-threatening, non-leading way so you can find out her true philosophy?

Ie, instead of saying Are you ok with me not having any vaginal exams (which would lead her to say "oh that's fine" to say what you want to hear) ask "What is your normal policy on how many vaginal exams you do?" kwim?

[Charmie981]

I love that they do group prenatals. That's something that I dream of initiating in my practice!

It does sound like they are more medical-minded, but is that because of the clients they care for or because of their attitudes? You might ask specific questions about things you might want. Like are they gonna be okay if you skip the GTT or GBS? Or if you don't want an ultrasound or only want one ultrasound or don't want vag exams until you're in labor? Those kind of things will give you an idea of where they fall on the spectrum.

I'm a homebirth midwife, but also have a birth center. Is it possible to find a CPM with a birth center so that you can make the decision between home and birth center when its closer to time and you know how the construction on your house is going?

ETA: for more information on the group prenatal concept and model, google "centering group prenatal care."