communityspotlight
Exploring the
Birth Center Option
by Tracy Garland
I
spoke with Karen Winstead, Executive Director of the New Life Birth Center,
a 501(c)3 not for profit organization working to bring Birth Center services to
the Roanoke Valley. This midwife-physician healthcare practice will provide
holistic maternity care services including prenatal, birth and postnatal care;
breastfeeding assistance, and lifelong health care and education.
Winstead agrees with Gaskin that the pregnancy and birth experience is
unique for each and every woman and her support system. During pregnancy,
most women want to feel empowered to make their own decisions, to feel that
their questions and concerns are taken seriously, and that they and their baby are
In this month’s Natural
receiving the highest quality healthcare. During labor and delivery, women and
their families need to feel comfortable and secure and have their privacy and
Awakenings, staff writer personal wishes respected. After birth, many women require ongoing assistance
Gail Condrick interviews
with breastfeeding and newborn care. Around the nation, women and their fami-
lies are enjoying this type of care in Birth Centers.
Ina May Gaskin, a
Birth Centers are independent healthcare clinics that offer maternity and
well woman care by licensed, qualified Licensed Midwives in collaboration with
midwife and leader in the physicians and other healthcare providers. Midwifery care emphasizes support
national natural childbirth
for pregnancy and birth as a natural process, disease prevention and promotion
of health, individual responsibility and self-sufficiency through education, and a
movement. Ms. May tells
systems approach to healthcare delivery.
readers that the most “Pregnancy is not a disease, it’s a natural process and
important thing that
should be treated as such.” — Karen Winstead
pregnant women and their
Birth Centers offer care that is centered on respect for the mother and her
partners need to know is
family and responsiveness to each woman’s individual needs. They operate on
the core belief that pregnancy is normal until proven otherwise, and that low-risk
that “it is vital to trust
women and their families should have the opportunity to create a birth experi-
ence that is both meaningful and memorable. Birth Centers provide prenatal
the process of nature.”
care, laboratory and diagnostic testing, education, consultation with specialists,
She says that “natural
attentive care during labor and birth, and hospital transfer when necessary.
Most pregnancies are classified as “low-risk,” meaning that the likelihood is
childbirth can provide
very good that mother and baby will experience a safe pregnancy, labor and de-
livery. Yet, under the traditional medical model of care in the United States, the
a holistic approach to
majority of laboring women receive unnecessary acute care and interventions
childbearing, one that
that should be reserved for high-risk patients only. Electronic fetal monitoring,
administration of intravenous (IV) fluids, confinement to bed and restriction of
includes the physical and
nourishment are still routine procedures in hospital births despite evidence that
they are of little value - and may even be detrimental - to healthy laboring women.
emotional, spiritual, and
The midwifery model of care, on the other hand, encourages the use of
cultural needs of each
demonstrably useful practices such as intermittent fetal monitoring, availability
of oral fluids, and freedom of movement in labor and delivery. The difference be-
unique birth.”
tween Birth Centers and hospitals is that hospitals operate upon policies to care
for people who are sick, while Birth Centers design programs for healthy preg-
10
Southwestern Virginia
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