Expecting mothers seeking alternatives to hospitals now have the option to give birth in hot tubs, yoga swings, or queen-sized beds at the San Francisco Birth Center – an independent, midwife-led facility that simulates a home-like setting under the care of medical professionals.
“Birthing can be a wonderful, beautiful growth experience, but it can also be extremely isolating,”said Julie Birdsong, a Mission resident and one of the Birth Center’s three founders. The center opened its doors at 2300 Sutter St. on May 7 and fills a gap that was left behind after the city’s main out-of-hospital birth center, formerly located in the Mission, shuttered in 2011. “Our goal is to create a community around birthing.”
Two years ago, Birdsong and her midwife colleagues, Nancy Myrick and Sara Van Acker, set out to empower women with options and greater decision-making power in what they want their births to look like. A growing movement for “natural births” and decreased cesarean section births has seen birthing centers cropping up nationwide, and the midwives were baffled as to why San Francisco did not offer this service.
“We decided that San Francisco needs a birthing center,” said Birdsong, adding that the women first set scouted the Mission for an appropriate space because they wanted to remain accessible to low-income communities, but they found potential spaces taken up by tech companies.
“A lot of places were scooped out of our hands by the tech industry,” said Birdsong. Earlier this year, the midwives settled on a freshly remodeled facility in Pac Heights, which is “less sexy for the tech world” but in close proximity to four hospitals, said Birdsong.
The new birth center offers support and services post birth and helps to ease women into motherhood in a way that most traditional hospital do not, Birdsong said. The demand is there, said Birdsong, as women are increasingly opting to give birth “naturally.”
“Hospitals are clinical and sterile, for a reason,” said Ilyse Magie, a Mission resident and one of the birthing center’s first clients. “For my birth process, that’s not what we wanted. We looked at it as a spiritual experience, and we wanted control over how that all looked.”
Photo courtesy of San Francisco Birth Center
The June 4 birth of Magie’s daughter, Delia Joy, marked the first successful birth at the center. The five-hour ordeal was made bearable by the attention and patience extended to her by the midwives, said Magie.
“We started in the tub then a birthing stool then bed – we tried every position imaginable and it was them guiding me through it the entire time,” said Magie. “At hospitals, it’s not like you’re forced to have a C-section, but the conversation comes up. You’re more likely to have interventions there.”
Although the center does not facilitate home births, its focus is on tailoring the birthing experience to their clients’ expectations. The birthing room is kept largely unadorned, and families are encouraged to bring their own decorations from home.
“Giving birth this way is almost like a rite of passage for women,” said Birdsong. “By choosing to give birth without medication, women can walk away readied for motherhood because their birth was a normal, natural process.”
With services like private and group prenatal care, water birth, postpartum home visits and newborn care, the birthing center “involves women step-by-step in the decision making process” as many traditional hospital do not, she said.
The extra care is what often makes the difference in ensuring a mother and child’s physical and emotional well-being post birth, said Birdsong.
“At a normal hospitals, a mother is often there for 24 hours maybe and after being discharged she’s on her own for six weeks – a lot of stuff falls through the cracks during that time,” said Birdsong, adding that at her center, “we really support that home care.”
The midwives also worked to keep this specialized care accessible to women in all income brackets by offering grants and sliding scale payment options. Along with their clinic, the midwives co-founded the nonprofit “Friends of the San Francisco Birth Center,” which focuses on fundraising and grant-making to cover the gap between birth costs and what low-income families are able to pay.
“We wanted this type of birthing to be something that wasn’t just for affluent women, but accessible to all women,” said Birdsong.