Home Birth
Home birth is a safe option for healthy and low risk women. Home birth is typically attended by a midwife and occurs in the expecting family's home. There are many benefits to home birth, including birthing in the comfort of your own home, water birthing, being free from policies and standards of practice/procedure from hospitals, and more. For more information on the benefits and disadvantages of home birth see here.
There are many home birth midwives available in the Houston area, for more information on those midwives, see here. A well researched and cited paper on the safety of home birth, see here.
Birth Center Birth
Birth Centers are a great option for healthy and low risk women who want the freedoms that an out-of-hospital birth offer, but might not want a home birth or cannot have a home birth (as in the case of a primary VBAC or family dynamics). Birth Centers are ran by certified and accredited midwives and offer water birth and other unmedicated birthing options. There are currently 6 birth centers in the area. For more information on the benefits and disadvantages of birth center birth see here.
- Pasadena - Bay Area Birth Center
- The Woodlands - Nativiti Birth Center
- Pearland -
Rite
of Passage
- North Houston - North Houston Birth Center
- Kingwood - Reunion Birth Center
- Katy - Katy Area Birth Center
Hospital birth is a wonderful option for high-risk women or for women who wish to have pain medication available for their birth. There are a number of hospitals in the area, all of which have different policies in place. These policies classify the hospitals as either mother- and baby-friendly or not. Local doulas and childbirth educators can help you to find a hospital that will best suit your needs and birthing expectations. For more information on the benefits and disadvantages of hospital birth see here.
Unmedicated Birth (Natural Birth or NCB)
Unmedicated birth can occur in home, hospital, or birth center settings. Unmedicated birth, or NCB, means that there is as little intervention as possible and that no pain medication is used during the birth. NCB minimizes risk by not introducing unneccessary interventions and medications to the birth event. This means that the birth event will be given every opportunity possible to be as healthy and safe for mother and baby as possible.
Water Birth
Water birth is an unmedicated birthing comfort option. It is an option for birth center and home births, but currently no hospitals in the Houston area allow for water birth. This option includes birthing in a special birthing pool, a regular tub, or any body of water. Water birth has proven to be one
of the gentlest ways for a baby to enter the world and is being
proclaimed by birthing women to provide optimal pain
relief and comfort. No longer a "new trend," this method
of labor and birth has become the number one option for
women world wide.
Articles
Websites
- Waterbirth.org
- WaterbirthInfo.com - The advantages of Water Birth
Medicated birth is a more medically managed birth option. Medicated birth must occur in a hospital setting. There are many medicated birth options, including epidurals and IV medications. As with any intervention, medication carries risk, and oftentimes, it means additional interventions may need to be used to mitigate those risks, including cesarean section. Medicated birth has benefits though, as in a prolonged labor or high-risk birth.
Cesarean Birth
A cesarean section is major abdominal surgery that requires an obstetrician, either general anesthesia or epidural/spinal anesthesia/analgesia, and a hospital setting. Cesareans can be life-saving, although many times they are necessary because of iatrogenic complications to the birth event. Even if you have a cesarean, many times, VBAC is a possibility for subsequent births.
Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)
VBAC is an option for most women who have a cesarean as a prior birth experience. There are some area doctors, and many area midwives, who offer VBAC support. Remember: choose your caregiver carefully, take an independent childbirth class and consider hiring a doula. YOU CAN DO IT; And you'll be glad that you did! For more information read here.
Articles
Websites
- The International Cesarean Awareness Network, Inc. (ICAN) is a nonprofit organization founded by Esther Booth Zorn in 1982. ICAN's mission is to improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and promoting Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).
- Henci Goer specializes in birth issues
- VBAC Rates for Texas Hospitals
