The Hidden Magic of Birthing Centers | Why So Many Women are Opting Out of Hospital Births.
A Photo Essay by Gracie Boettcher 
Young siblings interact with KBC midwife in a calm post-delivery bedroom.
A New Fad or a Reclamation of the Past?
The United States has seen, in the last seven years, a 60% increase in woman choosing to plan a home birth. The CDC has labeled this a record high in the last 30 years. While some believe this is a rising trend stemming from a distrust of hospital practices, thanks in part to COVID, others are raising the banner of returning to a womanly ancient wisdom.
When I began my own unexpected pregnancy in 2021 I automatically assumed, like every woman, that I’d deliver in a hospital. It wasn’t until I started hearing the birth stories of the closest women around me that small threads began to be pulled, unraveling my own assumptions of birth. It became clear to me that most birth practices result from either 2 views: Birth is either a natural phenomenon, needing little intervention for success, or an inherent medical emergency that women cannot handle independently.
The former is the belief of a birth center.
Katy Birth Center in Katy, Texas
What to Expect When Your Expecting : A Holistic Care Approach
What is striking about the Katy Birth center, located in Katy Texas, is the appeal of it being in a home. The lobby is a living room. Each birth room a furnished bedroom with tub access. A kitchen. A laundry room. Instead of medical interventions, you will find comfort measures, doula’s, nutrient dense snacks, and birth stools. There is a sense of the midwife working unto the couple, rather than a couple being under the headship of hospital policy. Each appointment with your midwife ranges from 45 minutes to an hour of vitals, depression scales, emotional check in, and exercise inquiry. Education of the expecting parents ranges from offered birth classes, pelvic floor workshops, evidence based handouts, and book recommendations. You are no longer a number, but a mother entering into the legacy of what it means to carry a baby.
Keep Making Those Birth Plans
Another large appeal for mother’s is the freedom of labor choices. At 36 weeks, her birth plan meeting with her midwife will determine what wishes she’d like honored. When in labor she will not be offered any intrusive belt monitors, be forced to labor on her back, face intrusion by strangers, be at risk for hospital borne infection, or be unnecessarily separated from her baby after birth. It is a calm and dark atmosphere that minimizes feelings of stress and fear.
A KBC Midwife in a client appointment.
A Worthy Endeavor
The judgmental relative is partly right, they will not hand you a medal for laboring without drugs, but what you will gain is new sense of what it means to become a mother. Many woman who choose this route for birth describe it as the most primal right of passage a woman can enter into. Natural childbirth also affords stronger bonds between baby and mother than other forms of delivery. You might not be able to comprehend what the next 18 years will look like, but you are more confident than ever, that you are the perfect mother for the job. Instead of your brain needing to catch up with your body, your body will be rest assured by your brain.
Baby resting peacefully in mom’s arms after a natural delivery.
