ALL kinds of women – from first-time mums to practised parents; young lasses to older ladies – are choosing to give birth the natural way at a centre in the heart of the Peak District.
Darley Dale Birth Centre is a low-tech environment suitable for women who have had a normal pregnancy with no health complications.
Matron Fran Gregory said: "It's for women interested in natural child birth. The ethos is using your body's own mec
hanisms to cope with labour.
"Birth is meant to be active so there's no bed in the delivery room. For women who are obstetrically normal, gravity plays a big part in helping her to cope without any artificial pain relief."
Darley Dale Birth Centre is run by a team of midwives who provide one-to-one support throughout labour.
The delivery room has a large bean bag, ball, mat, and space for moving around. In the room next door is a newly-installed birth pool, which is used by around 80 per cent of women at some point during labour.
The unit is not equipped for medical intervention, such as epidurals, casesarians, forceps, or ventouse, and if something goes wrong during labour, the mum is transferred by ambulance to Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
Fran said: "When a lady is in labour you get early warning signs that something isn't right and we don't take any risks.
"But the vast majority of women can give birth normally. It's having belief in your own body's ability because that's what women are designed for."
Darley Dale Birth Centre offers something in between a home and hospital birth experience.
Fran said: "The only difference between home and Darley is that here you're coming to an environment that's already set up and there's no cleaning up afterwards.
"The hospital is a busier environment and slightly more clinical. The midwives are potentially looking after more than one mum at a time so you don't get that one-to-one care.
"There is the perception that it's safer to deliver in hospital and some women want to have epidurals and caesarians."
Women can stay at the Darley Centre for a couple of days after giving birth if they want help and advice caring for their baby.
Fran said: "It's a very peaceful environment. Mums get lots of time to bond with their baby and we set them up for going home."
For more information, visit www. chesterfieldroyal.nhs.uk/darleybirthcentre or phone (01629) 593019.
The full article contains 421 words and appears in Derbyshire Times newspaper.
