Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Free-Standing Birth Center The purpose of this paper is to su

The purpose of this paper is to support the need for a free-standing birth center to be located one mile away from a large private tertiary care hospital. To this end, the paper provides an overview of several positive outcomes commonly associated with birth centers. This is followed by a discussion of why birth-centers are associated with such positive outcomes.

Birth centers are commonly defined as nonhospital facilities that provide maternity services for women medically judged as being at low risk for obstetric complications (Rooks, Ernst & Weatherby, 1992). These centers have become a part of accepted medical practice in both the United States and other countries. Indeed, according to Scupholme, DeJoseph, Strobino and Paine (1992), there are over 115 free-standing birth centers currently in operation in the United States; and these are located across several different kinds of locations including urban, suburban, rural and inner-city areas.

In the United States, birth centers have been associated with several positive outcomes. These can be delineated as follows:

1.Birth Centers Have Very Low Rates of Maternal Death. Rooks, Weatherby, Ernst, Stapelton, Rosen and Rosenfield's (1989) examination of birth center intrapartum outcomes revealed that those women who had no complications delivered infants of at least average birth weight about 94 percent of the time with no maternal deaths. Very few women required an analgesic, sedative, or tranquilizer during labor (9.8%).

2.Birth Centers Are Less Likely To Provide Women With Excessive Care Making Them Safer Than Many Hospitals. Fullerton and Severino (1992) reported that in their comparison study of birth centers and hospitals, findings indicated that even when they controlled for complications and for differences in sociodemographic characteristics, women in hospitals were more likely to receive excessive care than women at birth centers. Based on this finding, t...

Page 1 of 9 Next >

More on Free-Standing Birth Center The purpose of this paper is to su...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Free-Standing Birth Center The purpose of this paper is to su. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:40, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1701632.html