Birth Centres
What is a Birth Centre (BC)?
A Birth Centre is a home-like maternity care environment.You can expect to walk into a less hospitalized, more communal environment, with toys for children, books to browse or borrow and your midwife greeting you not in a uniform. There is a communal kitchen for you to make a cuppa, or when you are staying the hospital – make some toast or bring your own food and keep it in the fridge.
The birth rooms all have double beds, birthing baths and ensuite bathrooms. The rooms are spacious, filled with natural light and yet are able to be dimmed for your comfort. Bluetooth speakers, oil diffusers, labour/birth aides and other niceties are usually readily available to all women who plan to birth in a Birth Centre.
In the ACT our BC’s are within our two public hospitals and you are in a continuity of care relationship with a known midwife from one the public continuity programs available through both hospitals.
More information:
Why choose a Birth Centre?
Typically families who birth in the BC have shorter hospital stays (home within 24 hours, unless needing to stay), aim to have a non-medicalised pregnancy and birth, and would like to stay in a more home-like environment versus a hospital like environment.
What are your options for maternity care in Canberra ?
Note: this is an overview and you need to contact the individual hospitals to discuss your options
- Centenary Hospital for Women and Children Public (Woden)
- GP Shared Care
- Continuity of Midwifery Care (Birth Suite/Birth Centre) (Midwifery led continuity of care – all risk levels)
- Continuity of Midwifery Care (Birth Centre)
(Midwifery led continuity of care – low risk) - Publicly Funded Homebirth
- Maternity Team Care
- Fetal Medicine Unit Care
(Obstetrician Lead Care – high risk)
- Calvary Hospital Public (Bruce)
- GP Shared Care
- Continuity of Midwifery Care
(Midwifery lead continuity of care – low risk) - Maternity Team Care
- John James Private (Deakin)
- Home Birth (Private)
- Privately practicing midwives available to Canberra families
