Places to Give Birth in the Triangle
You just found out you are pregnant. Congratulations! Now you have to figure out where to have your baby. Thankfully, Raleigh and the surrounding areas offer a lot of birth options. Read on for some local options.
In this area you can choose to have your baby at home, at a hospital, or at a freestanding birth center. Here are a few options for each of those local options.
Home
Yes, you can have your baby at home! Homebirth is NOT illegal in NC. The legality lies with who attends your birth as your care provider. Currently NC, Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) are legally allowed to attend homebirths. There is some legislation in play that may make it legal for Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) to attend homebirths as well. Homebirths are a great option for folks who are very low-risk, plan to birth without any pain medications, want to have a water birth, have not had any C-sections, and have a safe space in their home to labor and birth. Some of your appointments would take place in the midwifery clinic and some of your appointments would take place in your home. You can expect longer appointments with your midfife as they like to check in on your pregnancy but also on how you are doing in general, including your mental health. Some homebirth midwives accept insurance and some do not. Ohana Midwifery and Wellness, Haw River Midwifery, and Special Beginnings Midwifery are all owned and operated by CNMs and attend homebirths in Raleigh and surrounding areas. If you have a home birth, the midwife at your birth will stay a few hours to monitor you and your baby and they will have multiple appointments with you over the first few weeks after you give birth to check on you and your baby.
Hospitals
We are lucky to live in an area with many wonderful hospitals who have maternity wards. In the WakeMed/Duke system here are the hospitals that offer labor and delivery services: WakeMed North, WakeMed Raleigh, WakeMed Cary, Duke Univeristy Hospital, and Duke Regional Hospital. In the UNC system the hospitals are: UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill (also called NC Women’s Hospital), UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, UNC Rex Hospital in Clayton, and UNC Rex Hospital in Holly Springs. You would likely need to check to see which system takes your insurance and then pick a practice that attends births at the location where you want to have your baby. Hospital births are a good option for folks who are considered to be more high-risk, folks who know they wouldn’t feel comfortable with having an out-of-hospital birth, have had a previous C-section, and for folks who know they want an epidural during labor. While you can labor in water in all of the above hospitals, the hospitals do not allow water births. OBGYN practices typically attend births in a hospital but there are a few care provider groups in the area who offer a mix of midwives and OBs, and even a few midwifery groups who only attend births in the hospital. Arbor OBGYN, WakeMed OBGYN, Kamm Mckenzie OBGYN, Durham Women’s Clinic, NC OBGYN and Midwifery, Triangle Phsycians for Women, and UNC Midwives are all local popuplar choices for care. All of your prenatal appointments would take place in the office of your care provider and you would have your baby at the hospital where they attend births. You and your baby would be in the hospital after the birth between 24 and 48 hours. You would have one follow up appointment with your care provider around 6 weeks after the birth.
Freestanding Birth Center
Over the last year, we have had a huge increase in the area of freestanding birth centers. Freestanding birth centers are staffed with Certified Nurse Midwives and RNs and they are not affiliated with any hospitals. Birth centers are a great option for folks who don’t want a hospital birth but they don’t want to have a homebirth. You can labor in water and have a water birth at our local freestanding birth centers. Birth centers in NC take low-risk pregnancies (no twins or triplets) and people who have not had prior C-sections. Freestanding birth centers encourage unmedicated births with low-interventions. Some birth centers to have nitrous oxide available for pain management. All of your appointments would take place at the birth center with a Certified Nurse Midwife and you would have your baby in a birthing suite there at the birth center. You would go home with your baby around 4-6 hours after you gave birth. You’ll have several appointments in the days and weeks after the birth to check on you and your baby. Currently, most of the freestanding birth centers in the area to not take insurance. If a birth center sounds right for you, check out Haven Women’s Health and Birth Center in Cary, North Carolina Birth Center in Chapel Hill, and Aya Birth and Community Wellness in Durham for more info.
As you can see, we have a lot of birthplace options in Raleigh and the surrounding areas. Narrow down which place of birth feels best for you and then interview a few providers to see with whom you feel the most comfortable. Trust in your provider and in your chosen place of birth will go a long way in helping your labor progress smoothly and preventing unneccesary interventions.