BIRTH CENTRES

Primary Health-care in Birth Centres

Birth Centres

Introduction

A birth centre is regarded as a facility of healthcare in which nurses, mid-wives and obstetricians for the women who are going to be mothers and are in labour. These nurse and mid-wives are properly trained and coached for these services. The persons who supervise the nurses and mid-wives are coaches and doulas. They help the mid-wives and make birth of a baby convenient for both mother and the fetus. The main work of the mid-wives is to check the labour and being responsible for well-being of mother and fetus both during the birth process. If there is a need of more medical assistance in the labour case then the mother is transmitted to a hospital. Some hospital has its own birth centres where they provide their own maternity services and facilities. A birth centre offers a home-like environment to the women than a normal hospital labour ward.

Maternity services in birth centres are comprised on three different levels. These are:

Primary maternity service

These primary services are provided to the mothers who are going to be with an uncomplicated pregnancy or a normal delivery. There is no any risk of danger and complications. It only requires some primary care by the mid-wives along with obstetricians.

Secondary maternity services

These secondary services are provided to the mothers who are going to have a complicated and risky pregnancy. It deals with cases of scissoring and the other complications to the mothers of to the fetus. Because of the high risks and complications it requires a special team of specialists and gynaecologists.

Tertiary maternity services

These services are required when there is a complex case of delivery occurs and any issue or problem may be happen during or after it. It requires specialists care from multidimensional backgrounds. Obstetricians, gynaecologists, and mid-wives are also present in those services to provide primary as well as secondary services to the mothers in labour and in postnatal period.

Discussion

The main purpose of the birth centres is to provide the maternity services to the pregnant women. Maternity services must be designed in a way that it has the capacity to offer less-risky and safe, cost-effective medical care for the women with complicated or uncomplicated pregnancies. These services must be provided with improved health satisfaction and outcomes to maintain the laws of quality regarding health and services (Tracey, 2007, pp.7-8).

Who provides maternity services in birth centres?

Maternity healthcare is provided to all the women who are going through the process of delivering a baby. It covers up all the areas of pregnancy, labour pain, birth, and the postnatal period. Primary care for this is provided by mid-wives or general practitioners and in case of secondary care when the case is with complications and risks is carried out by obstetricians or gynaecologists. In those cases mid-wives and other medical staff work along with specialists. In providing the maternity services there is a wide range of medical staff which includes general practitioners, obstetricians, anaesthetics, pathologists, paediatricians, neonatal nurses, midwives, ...