Birthing center
A birthing center is a healthcare facility, staffed by nurse-midwives and/or obstetricians, solely for laboring mothers, who are aided by doulas and coaches. By attending the laboring mother, the coaches and doulas can extend the span of the nurse-midwives. The nurse-midwives serve to assess the stages of labor, and to monitor the well-being of the mother and fetus during birthing to determine whether hospital-based backup due to complications, is needed.
Birth centers are meant for low-risk labors, and do not completely supersede hospitals, because a free-standing birth center needs hospital as backup for complications. To lessen the risk in childbearing,
