A Visit to The Natural Birth Education & Research Centre
A Visit to The Natural Birth Education & Research CentreBy Jane Thomson
As I drive up the meandering path, past thick rows of macadamia trees, and various citrus and tropical fruits ripening on leafy branches, I understand how many people arriving at this place often feel they have entered a flourishing farmlet. Indeed the property I am driving into is an 18 hectare tropical oasis, complete with fruit trees, vegetable gardens, and native rainforest plants. But the prime yield coming from the natural methods employed on this acreage are of the most exceptional and heartwarming kind – newborn babies.
The property I am visiting is The Natural Birth Education and Research Centre (NBERC) in the hinterland of the Far North Coast of New South Wales. The centre was established in October 2004, and offers women safe, out-of-hospital options for their pregnancy and birth, education courses in natural birthing, and conducts important research into the safety and needs of women choosing natural birth. It is a midwife led centre which is overseen by an executive team of dedicated midwives, obstetricians, university academics, and allied health professionals, and is a registered charity operating on a not-for-profit basis.
As my car draws to a halt near a low, timber homestead complete with surrounding verandahs, a smiling woman comes down the front steps and towards the car to greet me. “Hello!” she enthuses, and leans in to offer a familiar embrace. She exudes a warmth that is already drawing me to her. This is Margaret Spain, who is known to all as “Santo”, and it is her vision and commitment that is the reason for the existence of The Natural Birth Education & Research Centre.
Santo invites me in, and immediately I see that most of the building she calls home is taken up by rooms dedicated for use by the centre. It becomes immediately obvious that her life is a very public one, and she is afforded little privacy. Having stopped counting when she reached 500 births, Santo knows that the life of a midwife is an interrupted existence to say the least. “Women need you when they need you” she remarks when I question her about her living situation.
Santo is a visionary for natural birth, and has worked as a midwife and birth educator all over the globe for more than 30 years. She saw that so few alternatives were available to women in Australia seeking births outside of a hospital environment, that she felt compelled to create The Natural Birth Education & Research Centre to provide a place for women to birth safely and naturally and with professional care away from hospital . She set up the centre almost single-handedly, and has since rallied a committed executive team to oversee the running of the centre, as well as numerous volunteers who give their time willingly doing everything from farming and gardening, to daily administration.
After our greeting, Santo walks me around the grounds and takes me on a tour. There are several well tended buildings on the large, leafy property. In addition to her residence there is a main building which contains a sizeable meeting room, three fully furnished accommodation suites each with their own bathroom, a well equipped main kitchen, and a communal dining room.
Women can birth at the centre in one of the three suites, or can use the services of the centre’s midwives to birth at home. Pre-natal care is provided at the centre for either birth option. Each of the accommodation suites are available for pre- and post-natal accommodation and women and their partners are encouraged to stay after their birth until the early bonding process with baby is established. Around-the-clock support is provided by their midwife in those important early days, and when returning home phone support is available to the parents for up to six weeks. This is part of the philosophy of the centre who aim to provide their clients with complete continuity of care across the spectrum of pregnancy, birth and early parenting.
A spa and swimming pool adjoin the main building and are available for use by those staying at the centre. On the day of my visit it is being used by the ‘Mums n Bubs’ group - past clients who meet at the centre weekly for support and friendship. They are taking their infants for a dip on this warm and muggy day. I can hear their laughter and I sense that this place is a real community rather than just a venue for birthing. When I mention this to Santo she almost doubles over in delight. “That is exactly what we have tried to create,” she says. “A place of kinship and co-operation. This is a very special place”.
WHAT SORT OF “NATURAL BIRTH” OCCURS AT THE NATURAL BIRTH EDUCATION & RESEARCH CENTRE?
After our tour, Santo and I sit in the main garden and discuss just what natural birth means. Santo is clear that The Natural Birth Education & Research Centre does not just offer birth with “no drugs”. The centre provides women with the opportunity to deliver their baby with minimal interference, in a safe and soothing environment (whether that be at home or at the centre itself), while being supported by qualified and capable midwives who have developed a relationship with the birthing mother over the course of her pregnancy.
Dictionary and encyclopaedic definitions of ‘Natural Birth’ almost always describe it as birth without medical intervention or pain relief. However, these definitions fail to incorporate the important psychological and emotional aspects involved in allowing a birthing body to do its work. They also neglect the importance of the relationship between the midwife and the birthing mother. This relationship is of primal importance to the centres midwives who spend considerable time developing relationships with their birthing women.
Furthermore, a thorough understanding of the birthing process is essential for a successful natural birth. This is why the team at the centre believe that educating people in the principles and practices of natural birth is as important as the birthing process itself. All women (and their partners) are required to attend the centre’s birth education classes as pre-requisite to using the birthing services. In addition to the birth education classes the centre also regularly runs doula training courses, and is in the process of being approved as a Higher Education centre to provide a Diploma of Natural Birth to train existing midwives in the specific skills required for out-of-hospital birthing.
IF THE BIRTH CENTRE IS NOT ATTACHED TO A HOSPITAL IS IT STILL SAFE?
One of the objections that Santo regularly hears from critics of her birth centre relate to the issue of safety. Indeed, doctors consistently oppose midwife only birth centres, saying they put mothers and babies at risk.
There is, however, no significant evidence in the medical literature to suggest that home births or midwife led birth centre births are any less safe than hospital births for pregnant women who are deemed low risk. Indeed, rresearch strongly suggests that involving obstetricians in the care of pregnant women where no complication has arisen is more likely to result in intervention without any benefit in outcome .
Yet in Australia over 80% of births have some form of medical intervention. The World Health Organisation recommends a total medical intervention rate of just 10% of births. So why is our intervention rate so high? In Santo’s opinion it is because; “Women are birthing in hospitals where the medical model dominates, rather than at home or at birth centres attended by midwives who are skilled in natural birth”.
The Natural Birth Education & Research Centre adopts a very conservative approach to ensure that women and babies are not put at risk. If at any stage a woman’s pregnancy or birth deviates from “normal”, they are immediately transferred to the local Lismore Base Hospital for care, which is a short 10 minute drive away. This does not mean that women are at this point abandoned by the centre. On the contrary - their midwives will accompany them for their hospital care and birth, and they are then welcome to return to the centre for post-natal accommodation and support.
THE FUTURE OF THE NATURAL BIRTH EDUCATION & RESEARCH CENTRE
The centre has recently celebrated its second birthday. Santo hopes that in the years to come The Natural Birth Education & Research Centre will be a powerful force in Australia for natural birth. In this, the research component of the centre is critical to her vision. Data is regularly collected, collated and analysed in order to provide much needed scientific examination of natural birth and its outcomes for women, babies, and their families.
But not all the work being done at the centre today is in the name of research. As we finish our discussion, several women wander up from the pool. The swimming is finished and the weekly ‘Mums n Bubs’ lunch is being set out on the table. Santo sits down to share in the meal and invites me to join. All the women concur and warmly ask me to stay. The birth journey is over for these new mums and yet they still meet here every week. I sense that they want to continue to be here, to be part of what is happening here. To just simply spend time at this very special place.
THE NATURAL BIRTH EDUCATION & RESEARCH CENTRE is at 273 Lindendale Rd, Wollongbar NSW 2480. To contact the centre phone (02) 6629 5312 or email info@naturalbirth.org.au. Website is www.naturalbirth.org.au
Footnotes:
While there are several Birth Centres already operating in Australia, they are usually set-up by and attached to a major hospital in the capital cities.
2 For an example of this research see Hodnett ED, Downe S, Edwards N, Walsh D. Home-like versus conventional institutional settings for birth. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2005, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD000012. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000012.pub2
3 Assumes that no further hospital care is required. This is delayed if mother or baby requires further care in hospital eg. following a caesarean, baby in special care etc
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