Birth Choices
Our midwifery clients have the option of choosing to give birth at home, at Michael Garron Hospital or at the Toronto Birth Centre. Learning about each option can help you decide which birth location is right for you and your family.
Home birth
Michael Garron Hospital
Toronto Birth Centre
Have you seen the Association of Ontario Midwives’s new birthplace options web portal?
This interactive resource is a tool that gives midwifery clients access to research-based, client-centred information and pictograms about the risks and benefits of the various birthplace options, what to expect in each setting, printable supply lists and more!
Through short, educational videos, visitors to the portal can also hear from midwives and past midwifery clients as they talk about their own birth experiences, describe hospital transfers and demonstrate home birth equipment set up.
Home birth
A home birth is a special birthplace that allows many clients to feel competent, safe and more relaxed. The current research supports out-of hospital birth as a safe option for healthy clients. Midwives are required by the College of Midwives to provide informed choice to all clients allowing them to give birth in the location that they feel the most comfortable. For some families, this is their home.
Some of the documented benefits of planned home birth include:
Less likely to lead to interventions in labour such as augmentation, epidural, and assisted deliveries (vacuum and forceps).
Less likely for birth to end in cesarean delivery.
Mothers are more likely to breastfeed and for longer periods of time
A lesser cost to the healthcare system.
The Midwives Clinic holds a monthly information session on out-of-hospital birth that you can sign up for at the front desk of our clinic and you can read more about home birth on our website. The Association of Ontario Midwives has a birthplace options web portal you can access here that reviews what a home birth entails. There is also the Home birth during the COVID-19 pandemic resource that is for midwives that is available to clients as well. Please talk to your midwife about any questions you may have about choosing the right place for you and your family to birth your baby.
Michael Garron Hospital
Our practice has privileges at Michael Garron Hospital. If you are planning a hospital birth and in care with us, this is the hospital we work out of. Most obstetrical care providers, in urban settings, only work in one hospital. The Association of Ontario Midwives has a birthplace options web portal you can access here that reviews what a hospital birth entails.
Michael Garron Hospital is located at 825 Coxwell Avenue, which is off of Coxwell Avenue between Danforth and O’Connor Ave.
We enjoy excellent inter-professional relationships with the obstetrical and nursing staff at Michael Garron Hospital. The Family Birthing Centre at Michael Garron Hospital has private birthing suites, some with Jacuzzis and others with walk-in showers. The majority of our clients who have a straight forward vaginal birth, will be discharged within 4 hours of their birth, and followed up at home by a midwife within 12-24 hours. For those clients who need to stay for a medical reason there are a variety of post-partum rooms, ranging from private to 4 per room. You can request your choice of post-partum room when you pre-register at Michael Garron Hospital. Which room you actually will stay in will depend on how many patients are currently in the postpartum rooms when you give birth.
When you are approximately 28 weeks pregnant you will pre-register at Michael Garron Hospital and can book a tour of the Family Birthing Centre at that time. Often our clients will labour at home with their midwives prior to going to Michael Garron Hospital to give birth to their baby. In all cases, please page your midwife before going to Michael Garron Hospital for any assessment or labour.
Michael Garron Hospital is a Baby Friendly™ hospital and one of only three hospitals in Ontario to have achieved this designation. The designation is a globally recognized quality standard acknowledging facilities for offering an optimal level of care and support for breastfeeding mothers and babies. We are proud of our reputation as a hospital where breastfeeding is promoted, protected and supported.
Toronto Birth Centre
All of the midwives at The Midwives Clinic of East York–Don Mills are able to work at the Toronto Birth Centre. The Association of Ontario Midwives has a birthplace options web portal you can access here that reviews what a birth centre birth entails.
You can find all the information about Toronto’s newest option for birthing at the Toronto Birth Centre‘s website at http://www.torontobirthcentre.ca/
What happens at a typical birth at a birth centre?
Your midwife and student will assess your labour over the phone or in person to decide the best time for you to go to the birth centre. At the birth centre, a staff person called a Birth Centre Aide will assist your midwife to bring you to your labour room and orient you to the birth centre. The Birth Centre Aide will provide assistance and support to your family and your midwife throughout your labour and birth. Just like a home birth, two midwives will attend your birth, along with a student if you have one involved in your care. You will be able to stay at the birth centre for up to four hours after your baby’s birth. At this point you will be discharged to your home. The birth centre is not meant as a place to stay for an extended period of time following birth. If you or your baby need close observation after the birth, you will be transferred to either Michael Garron Hospital or St Michael’s Hospital.
The birth centre is a teaching facility for normal birth. Birth centres provide opportunities for midwifery students and other health care professionals-in-training to learn about normal birth. With your permission, a student in placement at the Toronto Birth Centre may be involved in your care.
