Making the choice
What to expect from my birthplace
The place you choose to have your baby will determine many other facets of your pregnancy, birth and postnatal care. Weighing up all the various aspects is part of determining what is important for you and your partner and how your preferred birthplace can best meet your needs. However, not everyone gets to choose their birthplace and being able to make a choice is generally governed by:
The normal progress of your pregnancy
Your caregiver choices
Where you live
The normal progress of your pregnancy. Birthplaces such as birth centres and homebirth rely on a woman's pregnancy, labour and birth to be progressing relatively normally. These places also anticipate that your baby will be healthy and born at
term. Because birth is a normal physical process for up to 80 to 85% of women, this will usually be the case. However, if complications do arise during the pregnancy or labour, your original choice may need to be changed. This also applies to women choosing private hospitals and smaller public hospitals, especially if the complications are quite concerning (such as your baby being very premature). This is discussed in depth in
transfer for the woman or your baby.
If you expect to experience a normal pregnancy, then your choices of birthplaces can be very wide ranging, depending on what is available in your local area. Although, some women will travel long distances to certain birthplaces to obtain the choices they prefer.
Your caregiver choices. Choosing your birthplace generally goes hand in hand with choosing your caregiver. For many women their choice of birthplace pre-determines their caregiver(s), especially if using Medicare in Australia, because their caregivers are allocated to them.