Birth centres are a midwifery maternity service that has become increasingly popular in Australia over the last 20 years or so. Birth centres are usually attached to a major public maternity hospital (but there are a few private birth centres) and are staffed by a group of 6 to 8 midwives who work together on rostered shifts to provide total pregnancy, labour and birth care in the birth centre. Birth centres will limit the amount of women they care for (ranging from 50 to 90 per month, depending on how many rooms they have and how many midwives work at the centre). This means they can book up relatively quickly. You can read more in
birthplace choices.
Essentially, birth centres are available to women who have no pre-existing health conditions (such as
diabetes requiring insulin) and whose pregnancies are progressing relatively normally with one baby (no
twins or more).The birth centre midwives will seek the advice of an obstetric registrar or consultant if there are health concerns or if complications arise. If complications do arise (such as
high blood pressure,
bleeding during pregnancy, labour starting
prematurely - before 37 weeks, or the baby being in a
breech position) then the woman's care will most likely be transferred from the birth centre to the doctors in the hospital antenatal clinic. Policies and guidelines for what is acceptable for care by birth centre midwives will vary from birth centre to birth centre.
The idea of birth centre care is that the woman meets all (or most) of the midwives during her pregnancy and has one of them with her during the labour and birth. However, this is not always possible and you may have a midwife from the birth centre who you have not met before caring for you during the labour and birth.
Birth centre midwives also usually have access to the services of dieticians, social workers,
genetic counsellors, physiotherapists and childbirth educators at the hospital as required.