More and more future mothers are asking themselves the question of a more natural childbirth. Who can give birth in a birth centre? What are the advantages and disadvantages ? Focus on the birth centers that offer specific support for future mothers.
By the end of 2022, the government had planned to create 12 new birth centres. In a column in the newspaper Le Monde, a group of midwives and women deplore the lack of practice. Indeed, a decree published in the Official Journal in November 2021 already provided for the development of these structures. Authorized on an experimental basis in 2015, 8 birth centers were initially created in six regions with “positive results”, according to the commentary accompanying the 2021 Social Security draft budget. “Birthing centers are “structures allowing midwives to carry out low-risk deliveries women whose pregnancy they followed as part of an agreement with an adjoining maternity unit“, specifies the decree.
What is a birth center?
There birth center is above all a alternative to conventional hospitalization. It is a structure placed under the direction of the midwives which allows a new form of management of pregnancy and childbirth offering less technicalization, a “reasoned” medicalization of pregnancy and a more physiological approach to childbirth. The accompaniment of the mother is global (from pregnancy monitoring, childbirth to postpartum) and is carried out by a single midwife.
List of birth centers in France
- CALM – Birthing center in Paris
- Doumaïa birth center in Castres (81)
- The House in Grenoble (38)
- The Time of Birth in Baie-Mahault (97 – Guadeloupe)
- Joy of being born in Saint Paul (97 – Reunion)
- First hours in the world in Bourgoin-Jallieu (38)
- MANALA, Alsace birth center in Sélestat (67)
- A nest to be born in Nancy (54)
Why choose a birth center to give birth?
“Today the management of pregnancy is no longer adapted to the choice of women, nor to their medical situation.“says Marie-Josée Keller, President of the National Council of the Order of Midwives*. For several years, pregnancy has been seen and treated as a pathology. It has become hypermedicalized for no real reason. An approach that displeases some mothers. Indeed, several studies have demonstrated the mothers’ need to have a more natural and less formal childbirth. Hence the idea of a more intimate structure where support is personalized andmore physiological childbirth.
Who can give birth in a birth centre?
If the pregnancy is considered risk-free and without any pathologyyou can be admitted in birth house.
The mother-to-be will be followed by the same midwife for both prenatal consultations and childbirth. in himself. She will have a single bedroom equipped with a double bed and a bathroom with a bathtub. The mother gives birth in bed accompanied by the spouse, a midwife and a minimum of medical equipment. It can then emerge within 3 to 24 hours after delivery. Postpartum visits are scheduled by your midwife.
What are the benefits of a birth center?
- First of all, it represents above all an alternative : “what parents are asking for today is the right to choose“explains Catherine Bernard, president of CIANE (Collection Interassociatif Autour de la Naissance).
- Then, the birth center allows personalized and human support for pregnancy and childbirth in an intimate structure.
- In addition, the midwife is more available both during the consultation and for the postpartum period.
- On the side of the medicalization of childbirthit is reduced to a minimum: no systematic infusion, no continuous monitoring and above all the episiotomiesan act that worries many mothers, are almost non-existent!
- Furthermore, the birth center birth cost is valued at 600 euros (against between 1300 and 3000 euros in maternity). That is a savings of nearly 30 million euros per year.
What are the disadvantages of a birth center?
Only safe pregnancies are accepted. Moreover, the childbirth being physiological and the medical equipment reduced to a minimum, it is not possible to request the epidural. However, if you wish, you will be transferred to the adjoining maternity ward. Furthermore, the length of stay in birth center is very small because this structure is not intended to keep mothers. In other words, you get home faster: a good point for some and a defect for those who appreciate being able to rest before resuming daily life.
*Comments collected in 2013.