Everywoman by Derel Llewellyn-Jones

Author:Derel Llewellyn-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141933238
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

Birthing centres

Hospitals have begun to recognize the need to provide facilities for those couples who wish to have ‘family-centred childbirth’.

This expression means that the woman wishes to give birth in as homelike an environment as possible. She wants her partner, and perhaps her other children, to share the experience with her, as she believes childbirth to be a crucial event in the life of the family. She wishes to be able to cuddle her baby immediately after birth, so that she may make firm bonds with it. She wants her baby to remain with her after childbirth so that she can learn about it and can breast-feed it when it wants food.

To meet these expectations, some hospitals have established ‘birthing centres’. These are furnished like a bedroom with a double bed, curtains and easy chairs. Any equipment needed for childbirth is kept discreetly hidden.

The woman who chooses a ‘birthing centre’ has the satisfaction of knowing that she is giving birth in as ‘natural’ a way as possible, but that if anything goes wrong – such as a change in the rate of the baby's heart, indicating that it may be at risk, or prolapse of the umbilical cord, or haemorrhage – expert medical help and special equipment are available within seconds.

A birthing centre provides all the advantages of home birth without its possible dangers.

In the birthing centre, the expectant mother may be cared for by a trained nurse-midwife or may choose a doctor to help her give birth. In either case the medical attendant involves the family in the experience of labour and childbirth, but has the knowledge so that if intervention is needed to rescue the baby, action can be taken.

It has been found that women choosing to give birth in a birthing centre require fewer drugs, have fewer operative deliveries and have fewer inductions of labour than women choosing other facilities.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.