The single-unit delivery system--a safe alternative to home deliveries

The need has arisen for the development of a health care/delivery system that can allow for a natural and personalized childbirth experience, within the safe confines of a modern obstetric unit. The single-unit delivery system (SUDS) is designed to achieve this objective by: strict prenatal screening of patients into low- and high-risk categories, utilization of a single room for the entire labor process, and close personalized supervision of women in "normal" labor by trained midwives/monitrixes. Physicians supervise the entire unit and are directly responsible for the management of all high-risk and complicated labors. The SUDS concept has been tried in clinical practice and has been proved to be an effective method of providing safe and satisfying obstetric care without compromising modern obstetric standards.