FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What steps are being taken to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in Arbour Birth Center?
Arbour Birth Center is available for families, who are medically appropriate, to use a birth center for labour and birth.
The cleaning protocol at Arbour Birth Center is always the standard required to protect families from contagious diseases. During times of high community spread of influenzas, covid or other infections, the staff of the center will also clean hard surfaces with an anti-viral cleaner whenever work is done in the center not only after a family has used a suite. No staff member with symptoms of illness, who have been in contact with others with symptoms or who test positive for covid will enter the birth center.
There continues to most often be only 1 family using the birth center at a time, occasionally 2 families. If there is more than one family using the birth center, please respect social distancing by staying within your birth suite as much as possible and masking (other than labouring women) when outside the suite.
**If you have any symptoms of illness, or have been in contact with someone who has symptoms of illness, please speak with you midwife about the best place for you to delivery your baby.
I am going to a doctor, can I have my baby at the Birth Center?
There is nothing in the Arbour Birth Center policies which would prevent a physician from using the birth center. However, there are no physicians in Calgary, at this time, who will do out-of-hospital births. This means that you will need to be in the care of a registered midwife.
How do I find a Registered Midwife?
On the Association of Registered Midwives of Alberta web site, https://www.alberta-midwives.ca/find, complete the application form. All midwives in Calgary and area will be able to see your application. You will be contacted by those who have space in their practice for the time period in which your baby is due. You may also search midwife practices and complete applications on individual websites.
Is there a fee to use Arbour Birth Center?
Arbour Birth Center is a private birth center therefore there is a flat fee of $550.00 plus $27.50 GST for the use of any one of the birth suites for any time during labour and birth. For more specifics about fees and refund please read the information under BOOKING (main menu).
Why is there a non-refundable portion of the fee?
The non-refundable portion of the total fee provides for communications and tours, documentation and accounting of bookings and the medications to be purchased for each woman who books in preparation for everyone to use the birth center.
When can I arrive at the Birth Center?
When you go into labour, you call your midwife. She will assess you and together the two of you will decide when the time is right to go to the Birth Center. Unlike going to a hospital, there is no need to wait as long as possible labouring at home. When you and the midwife believe your labour to be established you may move to the birth center. There is also a triage room on the lower level of the birth center for your midwife to assess you and baby to decide if the birth center is still the place for you to labour and birth before deciding to enter a birth suite. Moving to a birth center earlier affords you the time to travel with less discomfort, to make yourselves at home in the birth suite and to benefit of labouring in the large tubs.
Do I have to be 6 cm dilated before using a suite in Arbour Birth Center?
No, that is not a policy of Arbour Birth Center. Midwives used to commonly admit women between 4 and 5 cm but when the obstetric definition of active labour changed to 6 cm, it also affected when midwives admit women to the birth center.
Women may wish to or need to come earlier for different reasons. The only qualifier is your midwife is the one to admit you to the birth center and be in house for the length of time you are there. Therefore it is you and your midwife who make the decision when and why you optimally choose to move to the birth center and settle in.
Is there someone at the Birth Center all the time?
Birth Center staff are not there full time. Registered midwives are oriented to the center and provided with their own key. Your midwife is the health care provider who opens the center for you and will be with you, providing ongoing care all the time you are there. Arbour Birth Center staff come in as needed for administrative and cleaning responsibilies.
Do I need to bring sanitary napkins and diapers to the Birth Center like at the hospital?
No. The birth center stocks sanitary napkins and diapers. You will need to bring personal items such as clothes, toiletries and baby clothes. Upon booking you will receive a list of suggested supplies you might wish to have with you. You may take home the peri cleansing bottle provided and the extra pair of disposable underwear if you wish.
What equipment is kept at the Birth Center?
The Birth Center is furnished with all of the equipment required by the Midwifery Standards of Competency and Practice for out of hospital births. This includes: oxygen equipment for mother and baby, equipment if baby needs help to breathe at birth, a means of keeping baby warm, supplies to start an intravenous drip, medications to control bleeding, and equipment and supplies for suturing.
How many people am I allowed to have with me?
You may have whomever you wish accompany you to the birth center. If there is more than one family using the birth center, social distancing and masking is still requested of the support people whenever they are outside your own birth suite.
Can I use other services (i.e. doula, chiropractic, acupuncture) during my labour at the Birth Center
Yes, these are services and people that you have chosen. You invite or contract with them to be a part of your birth team. You are the one who decides who will be with you.
What if something goes wrong?
Midwives are skilled in picking up problems early and dealing with them. Often the problem can be corrected. If there is a concern, the midwife contacts the hospitals to locate a room for you at one of Foothills Medical Center, Rockyview Hospital or Peter Lougheed Hospital. If mother and baby are in no immediate danger, they transfer into hospital by private vehicle with the midwife following. If either mother or baby are at risk (which is rare), then EMS is called. There are two ambulance stations close to the birth center and response times are short. The paramedics work with the midwives to transfer the mother/baby to the hospital obstetric unit where the fastest care can be provided.
How long can I stay at the Birth Center after the baby is born?
You and your midwife will determine when you and your newborn baby are ready to return home or if there is any need to be followed more closely in hospital. The usual length of stay is 2 - 4 hours after birth.
Does the hot water for the tubs ever run out?
The birth center does not have a hot water tank as you would find in the average home, even though we look like a home. The facility has a 100 gallon hot water tank with quick recovery burner to provide hot water on demand.
What are the tubs and how are they cleaned?
The ensuite tubs are different in each suite. Please check out the pictures under the title Rooms.
The Rose suite tub has a large soaker tub. Iris and Poppy suites have air jetted tubs with one way valves to prevent water from circulating in the jet system. The tub in the Poppy suite is deeper; the Rose and Iris suite tubs wider. All are large enough for a water birth if that is your choice. All tubs are scrubbed with an antimicrobial cleaning solution, rinsed and then sprayed with a medical disinfectant for a final sanitization step.
What about cleaning the rest of the birth center?
Your health and safety are our utmost concern so cleaning is rigorous with all hard surfaces throughout cleaned with an antimicrobial cleaning solution and the birth suites cleaned with extra care using both antimicrobial cleaning solutions and medical grade cleaners Linens are pretreated to remove body fluids and blood, washed in a power wash cycle and dried completely at high heat. We ask that the midwives remove the fancy top layers of bedding to avoid having to use harsh cleaners on them.
Does research support labouring and birthing in water?
Research has repeatedly shown labouring and birthing in water to have positive outcomes. Research conducted between 2012 and 2017, with the article published in The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing, December 2019 again demonstrated benefits for most mothers and babies.
https://journals.lww.com/jpnnjournal/Abstract/publishahead/The_Experience_of_Land_and_Water_Birth_Within_the.99949.aspx#pdf-link
Can we use a birth plan?
Midwives encourage mothers and their families to develop a birth plan, which serves several purposes. It encourages families to think about how they want their birth to go and to prepare for it. It is also a communication tool with the midwives. Through discussion of the birth plan, midwives can find out if expectations are realistic or feasible. They can be sure that parents have thought about various options. At the time of labour, it can remind midwives about your various individual preferences so that they can do their best to help you have the birth you want.
What if the birth center is full when I arrive in labour?
Since 1994 a labouring woman has never been turned away due to unavailability. If it does happen that all 3 suites are not available, the manager will notify all midwives by e-mail of this and notify them again when there is a suite sanitized and stocked for use. We anticipate every woman booked has a 5 week period of time when she may use the birth center. Most often one family is at the birth center at a time, occasionally there are 2 families but only a couple of times have 3 families been here at the same time.
If I do not live in Canada, but will be visiting in Calgary may I come to Arbour Birth Center to have my baby in Canada?
Arbour Birth Center does not have a staff of midwives. This means firstly that you need to find a Registered Midwife. To apply for midwifery care, go to https://abmidwives.ca/find and complete an application. If there is a midwife with room in her practice at the time your baby is due, you will be contacted. The fee for a midwife is independent of the fee to use the birth center. If you are accepted into midwifery care you may then book Arbour Birth Center.
What is it like to labour at the Arbour Birth Center?
We have included some photos below from an actual birth that occurred at the Birth Center to give potential users an idea of what it may be like. In essence, it is quiet, unhurried and intimate, giving you the time and focus to labour the way you wish.
