Freestanding Birth Centers: An Evidence-Based Option for Birth

Every childbearing person has the right to learn about all options for perinatal care provider and birth setting. To ensure an informed decision about their preferred birth plan, information should be provided either preconceptionally or in early pregnancy. Personal preferences and risk status should be considered in decision-making. Numbers of births in birth centers have doubled over past decade to almost 20,000 births per year. The evidence shows that childbearing people who participate in birth center care, even if they have only birth center prenatal care, experience better outcomes including lower rates of preterm birth, low birth weight births, and cesarean birth, and higher rates of breastfeeding when compared to people with similar risk profiles who receive typical perinatal care.