The Royal Women's Hospital Family Birth Centre: the first 10 years reviewed

Abstract

In reviewing the first 10 years experience of the Royal Women's Hospital Family Birth Centre (FBC), we examined the outcomes of pregnancy and labour in a group of women who requested alternative birthing care and who were identified antenatally as being a 'low-risk' population. This study is a retrospective analysis of 5,365 women booked with the birth centre between 1980 and 1989. Over 16% of women developed antenatal complications precluding further care there, while a further 16% developed complications in labour requiring transfer out to conventional labour wards. Thus 67% of those originally booked delivered in the FBC. The instrumental delivery rate was 11%, and the Caesarean section rate was 4%. Of the women who delivered in the FBC, 3.1% had a postpartum haemorrhage and 1.8% required manual removal of placenta. Approximately 4% of babies born in the FBC required some resuscitation, and 0.8% needed admission to the neonatal nursery. Two perinatal deaths occurred in women admitted in labour to the FBC with a live baby, whilst 2 other women presented in labour with a fetal death in utero (perinatal mortality 0.89 per 1,000).