Birth Setting

Birth Setting - Hospital or Home

Cambridge Midwives attend births in home and hospital and have admitting privileges at Cambridge Memorial Hospital. Regardless of the birth setting you choose, you will receive excellent, safe care from your midwife.

Home Birth Setting

It is well recognized that for healthy women with low risk pregnancies home can be a safe place for birth. Midwives are the only primary care providers in Ontario who receive extensive education and training to help you safely give birth at home.   Ontario-based research tells us that midwifery clients who choose home births have many things in common.

They:

  • value a birth without medical intervention (if not needed)
  • are confident in their ability to give birth
  • find their home a supportive and comfortable environment
  • feel more in control in their home environment
  • prefer to move freely in familiar surroundings
  • want to eat and drink as they like
  • believe labour will go faster in the comfort of their own home
  • prefer to avoid an epidural
  • believe recovery from birth will be easier where they are most comfortable
  • believe that home birth is safe, responsible choice for themselves and their babies

Hospital Birth Setting

Ontario-based research[1] tells us that midwifery clients who choose hospital birth have many things in common.

They:

  • see birth as a natural process
  • feel most comfortable in a hospital setting
  • feel that the hospital is the safest option in case of emergency
  • like the idea of being close to hospital-only medical pain relief options such as epidural

If you are at increased risk for certain complications, giving birth in the hospital is recommended. This is so you have quick access to specialist care (e.g. obstetrician, pediatrician) and increased monitoring if you and/or your baby need it.

Some examples of when your midwife may recommend a hospital birth include:

  • pregnancy-related issues (e.g. a breech baby, gestational diabetes or developing high blood pressure)
  • long-term health conditions (e.g. heart disease, bleeding disorders)
  • previous birth complications (e.g. stillbirth, a placenta that wouldn’t come out on its own)

Your midwife will help you determine if a hospital birth is recommended based on the health of both you and your baby.

Edited and reprinted with kind permission from: https://www.ontariomidwives.ca/understand-your-options