Where Should I Give Birth?

Many people do not believe they have options on where to give birth, but this is not the case. At times you can be limited by what is available around you, but most people have at least 2 choices. The 3 places to consider are a hospital, a birth center or your own home.

Hospitals are the primary places that women give birth in our country. In a hospital you would be under the care of an OB/GYN or CNM. Here you can expect to have birth treated very medically and interventions done as mild as external fetal monitoring and as serious as a c-section if they do not believe you are progressing as you should and others things in the middle. This is just the nature of the hospital. It is neither good nor bad, it is simply the way things are done in hospitals.

Birth centers are the in between from home and hospital, having a home like environment with much of the medical equipment available if needed. They are typically run by CNMs and are part of the healthcare system and therefore covered by some insurance companies. They tend to be more holistic in their approach and refrain from unnecessary intervention. Many find this a happy medium between a hospital and their own home. (For further general information and locations visit http://www.birthcenters.org/.)

A home birth means exactly what it sounds like, having your baby in your own home. These are on the rise again in the US. The challenge with home births is the legality issue of CPMs from state to state. It is technically legal for any woman to have an unassisted home birth anywhere they live, but most would prefer to have an attendant of some kind at their birth. To learn about the legislation issues for CPMs in each state please refer to this site and this site. To dispel any myths, for women who have had healthy pregnancies, it is as safe to have a baby at home as in a hospital or birth center. Many times there are better outcomes because of the woman being in a comfortable environment.

Again, you must be seeking God as you are deciding where to give birth. We will get more in depth with these as we go, but hope this brief overview helps. Feel free to give any basic information on the places above!