A new option is born
Midwifery took another step toward the mainstream in Ontario this week with the longanticipated announcement that Ottawa will become home to the province’s second birth centre, starting this summer. Expectant parents are not the only ones who should be cheering the news.
The opening of two test sites for low-risk births (the other one will be in Toronto) will allow hundreds of women who would otherwise give birth in a hospital to have their babies at centres dedicated to birth that are staffed by midwives. In Ottawa, it is expected between 450 and 500 babies will be born each year at the new Ottawa Birth and Wellness Centre to be opened in June in a repurposed building on Walkley Road in the Ottawa Business Park. Midwives say around 40 per cent of their patients would give birth at a stand-alone birth centre if one was available. Most currently give birth in the hospital.
Giving those parents a third option in the form of a birth centre (in addition to hospital and home births) not only frees hospital beds for more serious cases, but should improve birth outcomes. A study in the British Medical Association Journal, for example, found that women who gave birth in free-standing birth centres experienced fewer medical and surgical interventions than women who gave birth in hospitals. According to the 2011 study only 3.5 per cent of low-risk women who started their labour at a free-standing birth clinic underwent a Cesarean, compared to 11 per cent of low-risk women at hospitals.
The findings suggest birth centres could have a significant impact on lowering skyrocketing C-section rates in Ontario, something that everyone from Health Minister Deb Matthews to economist Don Drummond has talked about recently. Ontario’s C-section rate is a startling 28 per cent, double that of some provinces. C-section rates between five and 10 per cent are generally considered optimal — in that they save lives when needed but are not performed unnecessarily. Rates of above 15 per cent are considered by researchers to do more overall harm than good to the health of babies and mothers.
The Ontario Association of Midwives says that the province would save $50 million a year if the province’s C-section rate was reduced to 15 per cent. That goal is a long way off. But Matthews notes that birth is the No. 1 reason for Ontario women to be hospitalized, creating a great strain on the system. Reducing C-section rates and moving more low-risk births to birth centres and out of hospital would save the province money and make birth more pleasant for a lot of parents.