Imagine...
Imagine receiving personalized prenatal care from a highly skilled provider team led by licensed midwives, who share a deep dedication to comprehensive parent-centered care. You will have time in your appointment to build relationships with your providers, and receive the kind of care you want and that is best for you and baby.
Imagine building community with other pregnant and parenting families through childbirth education classes, in prenatal yoga, or in group meditation.
Whomever you want to be part of your care and birth experience is welcome at the birth center - your grandfather, your best friend, your Capoeira teacher, and/or your 3 year old. In addition to being by your side, they can also find comfort in the beautiful living room and kitchen while you labor.
Neighborhood Birth Center will engage a community of doulas offering continuous physical, emotional and informational support before, during and after childbirth. Access to healers offering yoga, meditation, reiki, massage, pelvic floor physical therapy, chiropractic, and acupuncture, and mental health practitioners offering psychotherapy, counseling, and support groups. All of these supports as well as lactation & nutrition support, childbirth classes, and new parent groups are important to pregnant people and new parents and should be easily accessible in one place.
When you arrive at the birth center in labor, you will receive the best and safest of care from highly skilled midwives and birth assistants whose training centers on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life processes. You will have access to one of the beautifully designed state of the art birthing suites featuring a luxurious and specially-designed tub, and large walk in shower for the comfort warm water provides in labor. You will also have the option of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to help manage pain through labor. (Supplies and safety equipment are easily accessible but not overwhelming in the space.) In addition to sitting or leaning on the birth ball or stool for comfort, you can use Swedish bars securely built into the wall or sling anchored to the ceiling to support you in a squat or leg raise to open your pelvis. All of this could help move baby down the birth canal and provide some pain relief. You may choose to wrap yourself in a plush robe and you will have the freedom to move around the space as your body needs.
You can get some fresh air on a small private balcony or just open the doors while you relax in bed. You can customize the space with your own music, or other accessories to make it feel like home.
"The birth center approaches pregnancy and birth as a normal family event until proven otherwise. [And] encourages family involvement and provides a safe environment for families to experience the social, emotional, and spiritual renewal inherent in birthing forth new life while attending to the possibility that a problem may arise that will require medical intervention or care in the acute care setting of the hospital. This is in opposition to the view that pregnancy is an illness and birth a medical/surgical event that needs to be cured." -American Association of Birth Centers
When baby is born, you will have time to relax and bond. The team will provide extensive breast/chestfeeding teaching and help to get you off to a wonderful start. Once you are ready to go home you will have supports in place for you and your baby’s wellness, including a home visit in the first 2-3 days and warm, welcoming office visits at 2weeks and 6 weeks postpartum.
This is possible. This is coming. Allow yourself to imagine.