Fort Mill moms have new local birthing option

By Toya Graham - tgraham@fortmilltimes.com

FORT MILL -- Fort Mill might not have its own hospital yet, but women have a new option when it comes to where and how they give birth to their babies.

That's because Fort Mill is home to Carolina Community Maternity Center, a new birth center that is redefining how women give birth to their bundles of joy. At the birth center, the adage that women in labor must remain in bed is gone.

"This is a place where the natural birth process will always be respected," said Leigh Fransen, who serves as the center's executive director and part of the midwife team. "Women are free to move, eat and drink."

Those are luxuries that sometimes are not afforded during some hospital births, where eating, drinking and moving can be restricted. "Here, the mother is in charge of her birth," said Damaris Pittman, a licensed midwife and certified professional midwife, an internationally recognized certification. "The mother's wisdom is honored."

Carolina Community Maternity Center, a nonprofit entity, features suites that offer a large bed for laboring moms as well as a shower and an inflatable pool. Each are options for a woman to use to deliver her baby.

The center, anchored just off I-77 and Gold Hill Road at 2848 Pleasant Road in suite 101, opened last week. Then that debut got trumped. "We got our operating license at 4 p.m. Oct. 21," said Fransen. "We had our first baby 12 hours later."

That baby girl, weighing in at eight pounds and six ounces, was born a week ago today to Kevin and Tabitha Bush. The Charlotte woman, also mom to two other daughters, ages three and two, said the center offered a unique birth experience.

"I had two home births," Bush said. "The birth center was more relaxing. They let me be free to do whatever I thought was best."

The birthing center, a novel approach in Fort Mill, is a first for York and Mecklenburg counties, Fransen said. Carolina Community Maternity Center is the sixth licensed birth center in the Palmetto State, she said.

A birth center also is anchored in Columbia, West Columbia and Camden, according to BirthPartners.com. Two others are located in Spartanburg, the site notes, and others can be found in Aiken, Greenville and Orangeburg.

The local office is staffed by a team of four. In addition to Pittman and Fransen, who also serves as an licensed mid-wife, the team is rounded out by Christine Strothers, a registered nurse, and Lisa Johnson. Strothers and Johnson are set to receive their midwife licenses next month.

"It's been a dream of mine," Lisa Johnson, who formerly was a licensed midwife in Florida, said of the birthing center. "There have been no options for (North Carolina) women other than going to a hospital or to have an unassisted home birth."

The Fort Mill birth center features two suites that look like a bedroom from someone's home. Each suite is complete with antique looking or modern furniture to include queen-size beds, comforters and pillows as well as soothing hues on walls that are decked with accessories to make women feel at home.

The suites also come with a private bathroom and a shower used by some women to manage labor pains. Bush didn't have time to enjoy that perk, she said.

"I was in really hard labor when I got there," said Bush, who shortly after arrival got in the birthing pool. "The water dulled the intensity of my contractions."

Women also can have their baby in the shower, atop the queen-sized bed or in the blue inflatable birthing pool.

"Moms have the opportunity to experience a water birth," Fransen said. "Water births have been called the midwives' epidural," Fransen said.

"It makes the birth process more comfortable for both mother and the baby," she added. "The baby is born into a warm pool of water. The water makes it easier for the mother to change positions. It helps her to relax."

After Bush's baby arrived, she stayed with her mother for initial bonding and breastfeeding. Taking the baby away for assessment is taboo at the birthing center.

"A lot of women want to use the center because no one will separate the baby from the mother," Fransen said. "The first few hours are critical for bonding."

Not for nursery time, she said.

"We have the best state of the art nursery available," she said. "It's called mom.�

Whether women in labor use a bed, shower or birth pool option, the midwife team works with their clients to make the experience memorable. That was not lost on Bush who, a day after her daughter's arrival, promised to return to the birth center for subsequent births.

"I loved the water birth," she said. "It was not an option with my other births."

While awaiting birth, women are free to take in a movie or two with their family in a nearby room, eat, take a shower or use the pool. They also can walk outside the building. While Bush didn't have much time for many of those options, she was impressed that the center enables mobility for laboring mothers.

"I had more control," Bush said. "I had more options."

During Bush's labor and delivery, a midwife monitored the baby's heartbeat without putting a belt that is linked to a fetal monitor around a woman's contracting belly. Instead, a hand-held device was used periodically to monitor the baby's heartbeat, Pittman said.

"It's less restrictive and more comfortable," said Pittman, who delivered Bush's baby. "It allows for movement."

A day after Bush delivered Layla, the midwives could do little to mask their pride as they celebrated the center's first birth.

"I'm happy because Tabitha is happy," Pittman said. "She had the birth that she wanted."

Having babies at the birthing center costs about $4,000, and most insurance plans are accepted. That covers prenatal care, birth, basic labs and after care. The center also offers a free series of basic childbirth classes. Those classes are open to the public.

The birth center will hold an open house once a week from noon to 2 p.m. every Monday beginning Nov. 2. For more details, go to www.Carolinabirth.org or call 802-9494.