Your choice of birth location and provider can have a huge effect on your birth. Here’s why.

Photo by Danielle Wilstead, Wild Oak Birth

We all want to have a feeling of control when it comes to birth. Heck, we want to feel in control all the time in our lives! But I’ll let you know something - there is a heck of a lot in birth that we can’t control. Sorry, it’s just how birth is. Birth is one of the most incredible, fascinating, powerful and life-changing things that a person can experience. And with all that comes the fact that birth sometimes has twists and turns that we can’t plan for, and there will come a time in every birth where you will have to release control. 

Setting yourself up from the get go with a team and birth location that is going to support your desires and help you have a positive birth experience is one of the (few?) things you can control.

So as you’re preparing for your birth, think about a few things regarding your provider:

  • Do you feel comfortable with your provider? 

  • Do they give you all the time you need to ask questions and process fears during your appointments, or do you feel rushed?

  • Is your provider easy to get ahold of if you have a question or need something, or do you have to jump through hoops to get them on the phone?

  • Does your provider enthusiastically support your birth preferences, or do they reluctantly tolerate them? 

  • Does your provider encourage you to have a doula and see the value in having that support?

  • Have you heard your provider say things like “we don’t really do that here,” “we’ll see how that goes,” “you don’t really know what you want, this is your first birth,” etc? 

Something to know about having your baby in a hospital is that there’s a chance that the provider you’ve been seeing throughout your pregnancy will actually not be the one at your birth (because of being off call, not on shift that day, on vacation, sick, etc). In fact, in a survey we did of folks who had recently had their babies in Salt Lake City hospitals, over half of them did NOT have their preferred provider at their birth. The most common reason was that their provider wasn’t scheduled to work that day. 

If you’re interested in exploring your options outside of a traditional hospital birth with an OB/GYN, working with a midwife at a birth center can be a really good choice for people who:

  • Are considered “low risk” in their pregnancy

  • Would like to know exactly who will be at their birth and have a deeper personal relationship with their provider

  • Would like to birth in a low pressure, home-like environment 

  • Are planning to use non-pharmacological techniques to manage discomfort in labor (epidurals aren’t available at birth centers or home births)

Our favorite birth centers in Salt Lake City are:

(All of these birth centers also offer home birth services)

And there are also so many amazing home birth midwives in Salt Lake City. Some of our favorites that aren’t listed above are: