Welcome to our Birthing Center - Where Families Are Born!

Having a baby is one of the most exciting - and one of the scariest! - times in your life. It's wonderful to have family and friends around to help as you make the transition to being a whole new family - whether it's your first or your fifth!

The Birthing Center at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital has many ways to make this special day a safe and happy birthday.

The Birthing Center offers families the opportunity to experience childbirth in a home-like environment located within the safety of a hospital. The Birthing Center uses an LDRP model: mothers Labor, Deliver, Recover and stay with their babies Postpartum in their own cozy room. These rooms offer many options, from tubs to queen-size beds, birthing balls, and good support from staff to help you have a truly happy and satisfying birthing day. Epidural and intrathecal anesthesia may also be available for pain relief during labor.

Should a cesarean birth be necessary, there is a special operating room located in the Birthing Center. This will enable you to stay close to the familiar faces of providers and staff in the BMH Birthing Center, and close to your baby.

Our nurses are well educated, holding many specialty certifications. They are delighted to offer mothers the benefit of their expertise and share the excitement of birth and of a new baby in the family.

The BMH Birthing Center has many wonderful programs and classes in support of new parents. Interested in exercise programs? We offer them for pregnancy and postpartum. Our Perinatal Education Program offers free classes on baby basics, breastfeeding basics, sibling classes, and more. We offer Lamaze classes (six-week series and one-day Birthshops) with Lamaze-certified instructors. For the birth itself, our BMH Volunteer Doula Network features free doula (labor support) services. We are glad to share information about other area services. Hypnobirthing classes are also available.

BMH offers a special Room Service Menu every day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. This feature, offered by the hospital Nutrition Services Department, is free for Birthing Center patients. We invite you to be our guest for one special meal together before you go home.

During your postpartum stay, your baby starts life in your arms and stays with you as much as you want. Our nurses will help get mom and dad off to a great start on infant care, and our board-certified lactation consultants will help breastfeeding get off to a good start, too. As your baby grows, our weekly New Moms Network offers education and support for months to come.

NEW DOULA PROGRAM AT BMH BIRTHING CENTER

The BMH Birthing Center recognizes that women giving birth often welcome the help of extra loving hands, and so is now offering the services of volunteer
doulas.

The word "doula" comes from a Greek term used to describe a woman who ministers to new mothers. The doula movement, which began about ten years ago, has gained in popularity in recent years, and today is recognized as invaluable for women who have little or no support during labor from partners or other family or friends.

If you are interested in learning more about doulas, or would like to train to become a volunteer doula at BMH, call Dawn Kersula, RN, FACCE, Perinatal Educator at BMH - 802-257-8278, or e-mail her at dkersula@bmhvt.org.

To learn what our moms and dads say about our Birthing Center, click here.