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, primarily because research (e.g. Albers & Savitz, 1991) has repeatedly demonstrated that low-risk women do not really require the much techno-medical intervention during their routine deliveries.
Rather, the medical needs of this population can be met by some very basic equipment and by staff such as nurses and/or midwives who are specifically trained in maternity care (Scupholme, DeJoseph, Strobino & Pain, 1992). The purpose of this report is to present a brief survey of the outcomes observed in the current research to be associated with American birth centers.
Outcomes Associated with US Birth Centers
The largest current study conducted on outcomes associated with birth centers in the United States was the National Birth Center Study conducted by Rooks, Weatherby, Ernst, Stapelton, Rosen and Rosenfield (1989) who collected outcome data related to 18,000 women receiving at least some perinatal care in birth centers with 11,814 of the women being admitted to the centers for intrapartum care. Women were drawn from 84 different birth centers located throughout the United States.
In terms of the general characteristics of women receiving care, findings of the study indicated that the majority were middle-class, married, white females with an educational background that was at the high school graduate level or above. Their average ages were between 25 and 29 years. Regarding parity, most were giving birth to their first child or had only one previous child.
Intrapartum outcomes revealed that those women who had no complications delivered infants of at least average birth weight about 94 percent of the time...