The Uniqueness of the Birth Center Model of Care

Thank you to Desiree Larson, RN and past IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) for this guest post on the importance and uniqueness of the birth center model of care.

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Midwifery practiced within Birth Center settings offers uniquely empowering care and support for women, babies, and families.  I have decades of experience as a nurse, lactation consultant, maternal-infant program developer and policy analyst, and mother of three children delivered by midwives.  My experiences in these roles have proven to me time and again that the birth center model of care addresses the lived experience of the whole woman in a way that cannot be replicated in other models of healthcare.  Babies, parents, and families thrive on the long-term support offered by birth center nurses, midwives, lactation consultants, and others.  I have dedicated my professional life to ensuring that Lane County families have access to this incomparable model of care. 

The birth center model of care is fully integrated and addresses the entire spectrum of medical needs that arise long before and well after a baby's birth.  As a lead member of Cottage Grove Hospital’s maternity staff, I was a lead in developing a 24-hour breastfeeding helpline, hospital- and home-based Lactation Consulting services, and prenatal clinic- and home-based maternity care coordination.  Each of these is an example of the far-reaching and personal aspects of a birth center model that seek to support the mental, emotional, and physical health of women and babies.  They are furthermore evidence of the ways in which the profound needs that arise when babies come into the world can be met by a holistic approach that extends far beyond a hospital building or doctor's office.

Birth center midwives compassionately attend to the many private and often difficult life experiences for which women need delicate support.  These include: trauma and betrayal in prior birth experiences, sexual abuse of all types, PTSD, depression, anxiety, phobias, past or present stillbirths, past or present postpartum depression, addiction issues for themselves or their families, social stigmas associated with homosexuality, and teen pregnancy.  Women also often endure a lack of confidence in our bodies as a result of culturally conditioned insecurities, modesty, and shame. As a professional in this field, I observe that obstetricians' training and service delivery model does not include addressing the lived experience of the whole woman, or this long list of challenges and traumas that might accompany a woman's birth experience.  But as a practitioner of the midwifery model, I developed programs to support these common elements of women’s lives. Midwives understand that women's needs are not strictly medical, and seek to support the whole person as she experiences the profound process of pregnancy, birth, and caring for a newborn.  The closure of the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center will make this model of compassionate care unavailable to countless families throughout Lane County and our region.   

Birth Centers play a crucial role in the health of newborn babies.  Far from being merely a place where babies are born, a birth center is the hub of a community that offers support of all kinds for new families.  Lactation consultation is part and parcel of the birth center model, and takes place both at birth centers and in families' homes.  By providing hands-on, concrete help to new parents in breastfeeding, Birth Center midwives seek to ensure that babies can reap the vast and undisputed benefits of breastfeeding. This is considered to be among the most important decisions a mother can make for her infant and a significant decision she can make for her own health.  I helped spearhead the Baby Friendly Hospital initiative in Lane County; Cottage Grove Hospital was the first in Oregon to earn this designation, and I assisted the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in becoming Baby Friendly.  The Baby Friendly designation, which is an international standard, means that a birthing facility has met rigorous standards to consistently protect, promote and support breastfeeding. This designation gives confidence to mothers that their desire to breastfeed will be supported.  Birth Center staff is available 24 hours a day to answer questions, address concerns, and provide expert clinical support. 

Birth center communities offer other concrete services to ensure the health of new babies.  As a member of the midwifery community, I worked to ensure that settings such as these were accessible to the community.  At the PeaceHealth Nurse Midwifery Birth Center in particular, Baby Clinic is an informal setting where parents can bring newborns to be weighed and discuss infant feeding and growth.  Professional lactation consultants offer advice and assistance, and parents can ask questions and receive support during the very fragile first weeks and months of a baby's life. These settings, wherein both the physical and emotional wellbeing of babies and parents are being attended to by caring professionals, also foster crucial interventions into perinatal mood disorders and anxiety disorders, and offer access to facts about other issues such as safe sleep, SIDS, maintaining milk supply, working while breastfeeding, and referrals to other services.  Birth center midwives, nurses, and staff do not merely catch babies; they provide an integrated, wraparound model of care that seeks to ensure the health and wellbeing of mothers, babies, and families for months and years beyond a baby's birth.

Midwives do not view women as medical patients; they believe that women are experts on their own lives and feelings.  Birth center staff members work to support families throughout every challenging and joyful dimension of childbirth and raising a newborn.  In birth center communities, new parents' needs are validated and attended to by caring professionals.  The model of care practiced in these settings seeks to address the full complexity of women's experiences and vulnerabilities, and honors the strength women reveal throughout the very intense process of bringing new life into the world.  Birth centers offer true community healthcare, and all families throughout our region should continue to have access to this empowering kind of support and care.  

Desiree Larson, RN
past IBCLC