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Looking for stories fo births at a birth center
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Anonymous
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Hi! I am currently 31 weeks pregnant and have just switched from a solo OB/GYN to the Birthcenter in NE and am very happy with my decision. I am hoping to give birth at the birthcenter rather than at WHC, but my DH and mom are freaking out. They are both worried that there will be something wrong with me or the baby and that a transfer to the hospital will not be fast enough. I have had zero problems my pregnancy (my first) and no one in my family has ever had problems during labor. In fact, both of my mom's births were quick and easy.
Does anyone have stories about giving birth at either the DC Birthcenter or any birth center that I can share with my family? Both good and bad are welcome! |
amymard
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Member Offline
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I gave birth at the DC Birth Center almost three years ago. I cannot say enough good things about the experience and I would have ZERO reservations about going that route again. Sadly, we moved to Atlanta when our daughter was just two months old and our next child was born in Atlanta (only one birth center in all of Georgia). Have your husband ask questions of the staff at the birth centers. Things like, "how many emergency transfers have you ever had?" "Once midwives decide there's a problem, how quickly can we get moved?" I imagine he will be pleasantly surprised by the answers. Birth centers are safe places (safer, in my opinion, and now I speak as both a mom and an experienced doula) with exceptionally competent medical providers who don't hesitate to use their broad knowledge to help you get the birth you want. I'd be happy to expound on my experience privately if that would help. We're moving back to DC this summer and if I get pregnant again (not planning on it!) I'll be at the DC Birth Center in a hot minute.
Good luck! |
Anonymous
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good for you for doing what feels right even though others are skeptical!
if you post your question on the Birth Options Alliance listserv, I bet you will get lots and lots of responses. You can join at www.birthoptionsalliance.org if you are not already a member. i have several friends who had their babies at the DC Birth Center or Special Beginnings (or the maternity center when it was around) and all had wonderful, safe experiences. I haven't heard any negative stories. I had a home birth myself so I know how it is having people question your choice and worry about your baby's well being. i wanted everyone to understand why we made the choice we did but in the end, i knew that all that mattered was that we felt it was the best choice for us. now after having had our birth go so smoothly, our family members who were skeptical of our choice are constantly talking about how amazing it was and how it changed their thinking on non-hospital birth, which i feel really good about. hope you have a great birth! |
Anonymous
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Good for you! I had a hospital birth even though I wanted a birth center (or home) birth with my first. I had a great experience in the hospital (google malcolm desouza for info on a natural birth friendly doc) but I also worked hard at it. If for some reason Dr. Desouza can't deliver me next time around (if there is a next time) I will be going to a midwife. Dr. Tchabo is another doc who gets high marks.
(giving you doc info just in case you don't convince your hubs). |
Anonymous
| I think it's awesome you're doing this. I've been wary of both homebirths and hospital births and birthing centers seem like the perfect middle ground. Keep us posted on your experience and I'd love to read more birth center stories too! |
Anonymous
| i did exactly as you at 31 weeks. switched from capital women's care and went with the birth center and never looked back. naturally, my husband and i worried about the same things (all the what ifs...). but i had a completely uneventful pregnancy and an equally uneventful delivery at the birth center. the care you get with midwives is unparalleled. obs and nurses are too busy and not trained in natural delivery. you will receive tremendous care from the midwives, i assured you. i saw most of the midwives during my prenatal appointments and delivered with lisa uncles and sierra casillas. i cannot say enough good things about all of the midwives, but i have a particular warmth for those two (understandably). they ensured a perfect delivery. they left me alone when i needed to be alone, helped me when i needed help, and assured me when i was feeling a bit overwhelmed. i did not tear, we were home within hours although they let you stay as long as you need/want (up to 24 hours, i think, at which point if you need more care they'll transfer you to a hospital), and i was up and about walking 2 or 3 miles in a few days. i credit my super quick recovery to them. also, they never take the baby from the room and wait a good while before even taking the baby to do the measurements and whatnot. switching to the BC was, hands down, the best decision i made. there is no chance that my husband and i would look back on that experience the same way if we'd done it in a hospital. no a chance. and i wouldn't trade the experience for anything. |
Anonymous
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i too switched from an OB practice (RHJ) to a midwife run birth center (special beginnings). i switched at about 28 weeks, and it was the best decision i could possibly have made. the prenatal care i got was absolutely wonderful. the appointments were still long, but instead of sitting in a waiting room or an exam room alone, the midwife spent a lot of time talking with us and getting to know us. special beginnings has 4 midwives, and i saw all of them throughout my prenatal care.
baby was born a week ago with joanne, who i cannot say enough good things about. i had a really long labor (about 36 hours with another day on the front end of early labor). because things took so long to progress, i am absolutely sure that i would have been given pitocin if not a c section had the birth happened at a hospital. one of the most important things about my experience, to me, was the huge amount of trust i had in joanne. i ended up with artificially ruptured membranes AND an episiotomy - two things that if you'd asked me 2 weeks ago, i would have said i'd never agree to. but when we discussed it at the time, she calmly explained that given where things were at, these measures would help things to progress, and she was absolutely right. i now have a happy, healthy 8.5 pound baby girl, and am more or less healed from the birth (with the exception of the epi stitches, which will dissolve on their own in a week or so). i agree with what PPs have said about asking about transfers to hospital and complications and such - special beginnings gives this information at their info nights which happen monthly. i would also ask your husband and family and whoever else is concerned what exactly they are concerned about. for me, it was really important to me to have an unmedicated, intervention-free birth, and though it did not work out to be completely unmedicated or interventionless (took some stadol after 12 hours because i was completely exhausted plus the AROM and the epi), i really feel that choosing to give birth in the birth center rather than in a hospital managed my expectations of what my birth would be like. there were definitely times during the epic slog when if an epidural had been available, i would have gladly accepted it. since the birth center doesn't do them, it wasn't an option and i figured out other ways to cope. good luck with whatever you decide! |