It is possible for pregnant women to have access to many different birthing options in the communities in which they live.
Sacramento, California stands as a great example of offering every birthing option possible from delivering high risk women with planned cesareans to offering homebirths with licensed midwives.
Sacramento Birth Choices
- Hospital birth with a physician
- Hospital birth with a midwife
- Freestanding birth center
- Waterbirth at Sutter Davis Hospital
- Homebirth with a midwife
- Free doula support through Sutter Davis Hospital
- Private doula support
- Placenta encapsulation services 1. http://taylormadedoulas.com/placenta/ 2. http://www.sac.myplacentacaps.com/
The existence of these various birth places and birth choices mean that women in the Greater Sacramento area are able to consider and decide on a range of birth options that would be in their best interest and that of their baby’s. These options range from:
- Natural birth
- Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC)
- Medicated birth
- Moving and changing positions during birth
- Delayed cord clamping
- Placenta encapsulation
- Catching their own baby
- Eating and drinking during labor
- Declining interventions i.e. induction, breaking waters, episiotomy
- Cesarean birth
- Pushing baby in a position of choice i.e. squatting, kneeling, standing
Each woman has her own journey to giving birth and each birth is different. It is important that birth be an empowered experience and that women be able to make informed decisions and have access to a diversity of birthing options.
Sacramento serves as a model community offering pregnant women access to many different birthing options. Do women have access to birthing options in your community? If not what can be done to make choices such as VBAC, waterbirth, homebirth, and a freestanding birth center available?