WESTLAKE, Ohio -- Sarah Jarvis was pregnant with her third child in 2009 when her husband, Jeff, accidentally crashed his motorcycle into her car while she backed out of the driveway.
Jeff Jarvis, who was not wearing a helmet, spent five weeks in the hospital, had to have a craniotomy to relieve the swelling in his brain, and nearly died.
Sarah, 32, of North Ridgeville, had never been under so much stress -- worrying constantly about her husband and about how her state of mind might be affecting their unborn child.
So when it came time to give birth five months after the accident, she and Jeff went to
St. John Medical Center's Holistic Birthing Center
, one of many medical centers across the country offering comprehensive services for families who want a natural childbirth -- free of drugs, IVs and, they hope, medical intervention.
St. John opened its birthing center in September 2009 and has since delivered 139 babies in its state-of-the-art, 320-square-foot private birthing suite, which includes a built-in 160-gallon birthing tub, soothing neutral colors, a selection of music and aromatherapy, and four certified midwives on staff.
The philosophy at St. John, as at all holistic birthing centers, is that pregnancy and childbirth are a natural process, not an illness to be treated with medical intervention.
Mothers who deliver there do not use pain medication, hormones such as Pitocin, or IVs, and have minimal fetal monitoring during active labor. Unlike in most hospital labor and delivery units, though, mothers are allowed to eat, drink, walk, shower or relax in a bath.
St. John and two other Northeast Ohio hospitals offer water births -- University Hospitals MacDonald Women's Hospital and Cleveland Clinic's Lakewood Hospital.
Mothers at these hospitals also use other methods of natural childbirth: hypno-birthing [which teaches a state of complete relaxation during labor], the Bradley Method [husband- or partner-coached childbirth], and Lamaze [the widely known use of breathing and relaxation techniques].
"If you allow birth to occur without any [medical] intervention, then things will probably go well," says St. John midwife Colleen Brezine, who points out that continuous fetal monitoring has not been shown to improve outcomes, and so has not been recommended by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the nonprofit that sets standards of practice in obstetrics.
The best evidence for the success of holistic birthing is St. John's extremely low cesarean-section rate -- reported as 10 percent in 2009 by Ohio Hospital Compare, the state's hospital-performance website -- compared to a statewide average around 27 percent. The national average is around 32 percent.
"We do think that part of that has to do with the birth center's philosophy, but also educating patients about what to expect when they come into the hospital," Brezine says.
The fee for using a holistic facility like St. John's is no different than any other delivery. In fact, the holistic delivery should cost less because of its minimal intervention and drugs.
Brezine says the center bridges the gap between home births and hospital births, offering mothers who are committed to natural childbirth a staff that embraces the same philosophy in the safety of a hospital setting, should the need for a physician's services arise.
Sarah Jarvis delivered a healthy baby boy, Noah, using a water-birth technique in January 2010. However, the birthing suite was in use when she arrived, so she used a portable tub in an adjacent room.
Still, she said the experience was extremely positive, and much better than her two previous births, which both involved painkilling medications and hormones to speed labor.
So three months later, when Jarvis found herself pregnant again, she knew exactly where and how she would deliver.
Lyla Emily Jarvis was born Feb. 1 after about three hours of labor. Mom and Dad agreed it was an even better experience the second time around.
Jeff, who was allowed to help Sarah labor in the tub, says he felt very involved in the birth.
"This is unlike anything I've ever been a part of, in a time of turmoil when she was hurting so badly, I could be there and hold onto her," he says.
"It allows the dad to comfort the mom in a completely different way than when you have an epidural and you're not really moving, and dad's sole responsibility is to just hold your leg," says Sarah. "He was my focal point just pushing me through -- it was awesome."
Holistic birthing centers encourage the involvement of a support person, usually a family member or close friend, who is well educated on the birth process and helps the mother with the birth. The centers usually also accommodate family, including children, at the birth.
"We had a mother with both her father and uncle at the birth," says Brezine. "A little out of the ordinary, but it was healing for them."
Another priority for holistic births is keeping mother and baby together after delivery. Most centers recommend "kangaroo care," where the baby is held skin-to-skin with either the mother or father, promoting bonding, easing nursing and regulating a newborn's body temperature.
Brezine says there is a growing group of mothers who want this type of service, and the hospital has seen visitors from as far as Toledo, Youngstown and even Cincinnati.
St. John plans to add a second holistic birthing room to the center in the next two years as the hospital completes an expansion project.
"The concept has really taken," says Brezine. "I think if you can come to a place that supports choices and not just traditional care, people really appreciate that."
Ascension St. John Hospital has state of the art facilities. The Birthing Center is spacious and attractive with 31 LDRPs, to include holistic birthing suites, plus 20 post-partum and 17 high risk rooms. It is a large unit with 3,200 deliveries annually. The patient profile in obstetrics is 70% private and 30% clinic, staff, and maternal transfers.
Ascension St. John Hospital and the Department of OB/GYN place significant emphasis on patient safety objectives. PGY1 residents attend a training session focusing on Communication for Patient Safety within the first month of residency. All associates who work on the Birthing Center receive this training also. Ascension St. John Hospital participated in the AHRQ grant from 2009-2013. This grant focused on education, simulation exercises and disclosure training in order to improve patient safety on Labor and Delivery. Educational activities related to the grant continue. Residents participate in simulation exercises using the Noelle Obstetric Simulator. Ascension St. John Hospital has a Safety Committee, an Event Reporting System [ERS] for reporting safety concerns, and many individual departmental initiatives related to patient safety.
Ascension St. John Hospital and Medical Center is the first hospital in Detroit to earn “Baby Friendly” accreditation through the prestigious Baby-Friendly USA, Inc. This accrediting body for the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative [BFHI] in the United States recognizes hospitals and birthing centers that offer an optimal level of care for infant feeding and mother/baby bonding.