Giving birth in luxury: safe, calm, warm and comfortable
The Birth House is for women who’d like an extra feeling of safety brought by constant professional care and attention, making the birth a special and intimate experience. It’s also ideal for women who feel their home is too small or too high up, or who are concerned about noise for the neighbours.
The comfortable birth suites are both homely and luxurious, with an open fire and a soothing bath in which you can spend time during labour, or even deliver your baby.

Most women want to be able to move around easily during labour, and have a choice of positions to give birth in. So the comfortable living rooms have warm floors, and a full range of facilities to ease the birth, including a birthing stool.

The rooms come with every convenience, from room service to a fridge stocked with drinks, a TV, and round-the-clock assistance. For your partner or family there’s a café-restaurant with a pavement terrace just round the corner, where they can have a drink or something to eat, and get a breath of fresh air.

You won’t want for anything. And you don’t need to bring anything with you, apart from some first baby clothes. You’re our guest, we’ll look after you completely, and while you’re with us, the birth suite is all yours. Having a baby at the Birth House is giving birth at the midwife’s home!

The Birth House: a safe place where you feel at home

Having a baby is a major life event. It’s an exciting new experience. So the best place to give birth is somewhere you feel safe. This makes it’s easier to give yourself over to the process of labour. Usually there’s nowhere you feel safer than in your own home. So the Birth House is the perfect answer for women who prefer not to give birth at home, but also want to avoid a hospital delivery. After all, a hospital is a busy place you associate with strange faces, illness, operations and bacteria rather than with a healthy baby.

The doula is there for you

At the Birth House you have the support of your own doula, day and night. Your midwife is in charge, and she’ll supervise the birth, but the doula is there specially to support you and your partner from start to finish. She helps you cope with the contractions, guides your breathing, and stays with you until you’ve given birth. If you like, she’ll also massage and pamper you, and help relieve your stress. But mainly, she’ll keep an eye on you and see if there’s anything you need. There will be moments you’d like to be left in peace with your partner. At other times you’ll need extra help and support. For your partner it’s reassuring always to be able to rely on the doula.

Your own familiar midwife will come with you to the Birth House to attend the birth. Like you, she’ll be well looked after in her own ‘midwife’s suite’. And she can also have a relaxing massage, get a hearty bowl of soup or take a nap. That way she’ll have more energy to support you.

Birth House: water birth centre
Water has a beneficial effect throughout labour. In water, the contractions become more effective so labour progresses more quickly. You also experience less pain and find it easier to relax. So at the Birth House we specialise in water births. Each living room has a large, comfortable bath where you can relax, with the fire burning gently in the hearth and soup simmering ready for after the birth.

Helping you cope with pain 

The Birth House specialises in pain relief and helping women cope with pain. We use techniques like acupuncture, warm water therapy and hypnotherapy. And in the future we’ll also be able to provide gas and air (nitrous oxide and oxygen) and sterile water injections.

Both before and after the birth, we also offer extra individual pain consultations. These are one-off sessions on learning to deal with the fear of pain or with previous traumatic birth experiences. The aim is to make sure this time the birth of your baby really is that special moment you can treasure for the rest of your life.

When it’s time to give birth

When your contractions start, you contact us in consultation with your midwife. There’s a hostess waiting to welcome you 24 hours a day. If you haven’t registered with the Birth House during your pregnancy, but during labour and after consulting your midwife you decide you’d like to come to us after all, you’re also very welcome. We have plenty of room.

Births are unpredictable, so there’s no way of knowing how many women in labour we’ll have on a particular day. In the unlikely event that we’ve suddenly been flooded with births when you go into labour, we can transfer you to the maternity centre at the Saint Lucas Andreas hospital (Bevalcentrum West). During extremely busy periods, of course women with reservations at the Birth House have priority.

Referral to hospital