Committee Probes Safety, Transfer Plans and Inspection Regime for Proposed Freestanding Birth Centers

Committee members questioned how freestanding birth centers would operate, how they would handle emergencies and what inspection and oversight mechanisms VDH would apply if S.18 becomes law.

Erin Mandeville, a certified nurse midwife with nearly 20 years’ experience, described typical birth-center operations and capacity. She said most birth centers have two birth rooms, may provide prenatal and postpartum care on site, and typically do four to eight births a month in ordinary practice; “even the busiest birth center I worked at in Fairbanks, Alaska, we did somewhere between 15 to 20 babies a month,” she said. Mandeville and other midwife witnesses emphasized continuity of care, prenatal risk screening and the midwifery model as contributors to…