“When a baby is born in an environment of peace...when a woman is believed and loved and encouraged during that time of birth, when mom and babe are honored as accomplished journeymen, the result can only be a certain strength and hope that transcends all the doubt and fear that family life will present.”
-Katherine Bramhall
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birth at the birth center
What is a Birth Center? The birth center is a facility for childbirth where care is provided in the midwifery and wellness model. The birth center is freestanding and not a hospital.
Birth centers are an integrated part of the health care system and are guided by principles of prevention, sensitivity, safety, appropriate medical intervention and cost-effectiveness. While the practice of midwifery and the support of physiologic birth and newborn transition may occur in other settings, this is the exclusive model of care in a birth center.
The birth center respects and facilitates a woman's right to make informed choices about her health care and her baby's health care based on her values and beliefs. The woman's family, as she defines it, is welcome to participate in the pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period.
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The birth center can be described with 5 Ps:
people
• Healthy, low-risk pregnancy and birth
• Licensed, qualified staff with full comprehension of limits of midwifery practice and insured for professional liability
• Qualified obstetric/pediatric consultants
place
• Home-like - a maximized home rather than a mini-hospital
• Meets all construction, fire and safety, and health codes
• Equipped to provide routine care and initiate emergency procedures
• Freestanding facility - separate from acute obstetric/newborn care with autonomy in formulation of policy and management of operation
• Located so that there is reasonable access to hospital care.
program
• Orientation and shared decision-making
• Antepartum care including continuous screening by history, physical exam, routine laboratory tests and health counseling
• Plan for participation of family members as defined by woman receiving care
• Educational program that includes component of self-care/self-help
• Plan for payment of services
• Twenty-four hour telephone access to care provider
• Intrapartum care with a midwife in constant attendance during active labor
• Postpartum/newborn care supervised by licensed nurse or midwife
• Required newborn laboratory screening tests
• Plan for newborn health supervision at center or by referral
• Home-office visits for postpartum newborn follow-up
• Provision for support in parenting and breastfeeding
practice of midwifery
• Midwifery is Primary Care that emphasizes:
• Midwifery Primary Care is a first-level entry into a health-oriented system, triaging when the process of pregnancy and birth departs from its normal course.
• It is dependent upon:
part of the system
• Has written policies and procedures that reflect standard quality assurance
• Relationship with other community health agencies for complementary services
• Arrangement for referral and transfer to other levels of care
• Access to an acute care obstetrical/newborn unit
• Support for pregnancy and birth as a natural physiological process - “normal until proven otherwise;”
• Prevention of disease/promotion of health;
• Individual responsibility and self-sufficiency through education;
• A systems approach to the delivery of health services;
• That midwifery may be practiced by any qualified, licensed provider willing to embrace the philosophy of midwifery and obtain the knowledge and skills needed for midwifery practice.
• Laboratory services;
• Availability of specialist services;
• Access to acute care services;
• Separation of primary care from acute care in pregnancy and childbirth is the most important principle of the birth center concept.
• The interdependent relationship between the birth center and acute care services:
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birth at home
Gentle Landing attends an extremely limited number of births at home in the Upper Valley of NH and VT. The safety of home birth for low-risk birthing people has been studied as late as August 2019 in a large international study which found, "more women in well-resourced countries are choosing birth at home. "This research clearly demonstrates the risk is no different when the birth is intended to be at home or in hospital."
There are a lot of factors involved in childbirth, including the health of the mother and the baby. Bringing birthing-at-home professionals into the equation can ensure that your home birth goes smoothly. If you live in the Upper Valley area of New Hampshire or Vermont, we're ready to help you plan your home birth.
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Labor support
At times the midwives and birth assistants at Gentle Landing Birth Center may find it necessary to transfer a family to a hospital if circumstances become outside our scope of practice. If a client wishes us to remain with them after things have settled down at the hospital, there is the option for us to remain with you and act as Labor Support for the remainder of your labor and birth.
Labor Support not only nurtures and supports the birthing person throughout labor and birth, they also have the capacity to help navigate the more technical questions that may come up in labor and birth. Their essential role is to provide continuous labor support to the mother, no matter what decisions the mother makes or how she gives birth. Labor support is defined as the therapeutic presence of another person, in which human-to-human interaction with caring behaviors is practiced.
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in your pregnancy and birth
Getting to know you
We will see you for prenatal visits once every four weeks until 28 weeks; then once every two weeks until 36 weeks, with weekly visits thereafter until your baby is born.
All standard prenatal tests
are offered to you and available in the office. We talk about it all together and we decide as a team what tests might serve you and your pregnancy and baby best.
Getting to know more about you
If you are having a homebirth, a home visit is scheduled around 36 weeks so we will be easily oriented to your home when it is time to attend you in birth.
Postpartum care for you and your baby happens at your home at one day, then in the office at three days, one, three and six weeks postpartum.
If additional visits are necessary or something pops up in your pregnancy and/or postpartum, we see you as is important as well as when you want until your situation is back in balance.
Care
gentle landing accepts most insurances
Blue Cross Blue Shield of VT and NH, Cigna, Vermont and NH Medicaid, MVP, Well Sense and others. More and more, birth center and home birth is an option if you have insurance! Give us a call to discuss your insurance options for your birth and well-woman care.
