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In all maternity hospitals, women give birth in birthing rooms. Sometimes, some rooms equipped a little differently are also available: there is no delivery bed, but rather a tub to relax during dilation, balloons, and a normal bed, without stirrups. We call them nature rooms or physiological birthing spaces. Finally, some services include a “birth house”: it is in fact a floor devoted to monitoring pregnancy and childbirth with several rooms equipped like nature rooms.
Are there nature rooms everywhere?
No. Paradoxically, we sometimes find these spaces in large university hospitals or large maternity hospitals who have enough room to have such a place and who also want to meet the demand of women in search of moderate medicalization. However, it must be remembered that a natural childbirth – can take place anywhere. What makes the difference is the mother’s wishes regarding the birth of her baby and the availability of midwives.
How does a childbirth take place in a nature room?
When a woman arrives to give birth, she can go from the start of labor to the nature room. There, she can take a hot bath: the heat eases the pain of the contractions and often accelerates the dilation of the cervix. Usually, as labor progresses and contractions accelerate, women get out of the bath (it is rare for a child to be born in water, although this sometimes happens when everything is going very well) and settle on the bed. They can then move as they want and find the position that suits them best to give birth. For the expulsion of the baby, it is often very effective to get on all fours or in suspension. A study by the Collective interassociative around birth (CIANE), published in 2013, showed a significantly lower use of episiotomy in physiological spaces or nature rooms. It also appears that there is less instrumental extraction in these birth spaces.
Can we benefit from an epidural in nature rooms?
In the nature rooms, we give birth “naturally”: therefore without epidural which is an anesthesia requiring fairly specific medical supervision (continuous monitoring by monitoring, perfusion, lying or semi-seated position and presence of the anesthesiologist). But of course, we can start the first hours of childbirth in the room, then if the contractions become too strong, it is always possible to go to a traditional labor room and benefit from the epidural. There are also many alternative methods to the epidural to relieve labor pains.
Is safety ensured in the nature rooms?
A childbirth is an event that a priori goes well. Nevertheless, a certain degree of medical supervision is necessary in order to prevent complications. The midwife, who assures the accompaniment of couples in the nature rooms, is thus vigilant to all emergency signals (for example a dilation which stagnates). Regularly, she checks the baby’s heart rate with a monitoring system for about thirty minutes. If she judges that the situation is no longer quite normal, it is she who makes the decision to go to a conventional ward or, in agreement with the obstetrician, directly to the operating room for a cesarean section. Hence the importance of being located at the very heart of the maternity hospital.
How is the care of the baby going in a natural room?
During a so-called natural birth, everything is done to ensure that the baby is received in good conditions. But this is also increasingly the case in traditional birthing rooms. Apart from any pathology, it is not necessary to separate the child from its mother. The newborn is placed skin-to-skin with his mother for as long as she wishes. This, to promote the establishment of the mother-child bond and early nutrition. The baby’s first aid is carried out in the nature room, in a calm and warm environment. So as not to disturb the baby, these treatments are less numerous today. For example, we no longer systematically practice gastric aspiration. The rest of the tests are done by the pediatrician the next day.
The Angers maternity hospital presents its physiological space
One of the largest public maternity hospitals in France, the Angers University Hospital, opened a physiological birthing center in 2011. Two nature rooms are available for mothers who wish to give birth more naturally. Their care is minimally medical while providing a secure environment. Wireless monitoring, bathtubs, physiological delivery tables, lianas hung from the ceiling to facilitate labor, all of which allow the baby to be welcomed in the greatest harmony.