About Birth Centre Bristol
The Birth Centre Bristol project was started by midwives in 2001 with the aim of setting up one or more birth centres in the Bristol area. A birth centre is a place where women are looked after by midwives before, during and after childbirth in a small, accessible, locally based setting. Midwife-led birth centres offer continuity of care and a sensitive, individual approach to the many women with straightforward pregnancies who do not need to give birth in hospital. Birth centres are highly rated both by the women who give birth and by the midwives who work in them.
Birth Centre Bristol is campaigning for birth centres throughout Bristol that are part of the National Health Service and free to the women who use them. We are asking Bristol North Primary Care Trust to include a birth centre in the new healthcare facility planned for Easton and Lawrence Hill, and Neighbourhood Renewal has funded us to carry this work forward. Such a birth centre, near women's homes in Easton, would particularly benefit women from the Somali and Bengali communities, where birth intervention rates are high, as well as teenagers and other minority groups.
Bristol South & West Primary Care Trust is planning a new community hospital at Hengrove Park. We want to see a birth centre included in this hospital, and in all the other community facilities planned for the Bristol area, so that midwife-led maternity care is within reach for all women in Bristol.
As the Primary Care Trusts develop their plans and begin to decide which services are to be included in these new hospitals, we are actively engaged with the planning process, providing information on the benefits of birth centres, the likely costs, staffing needs and other practical matters.
We have already made great progress and are optimistic that our aims will be achieved within this decade.