A compromise for change.

© www.sarawickham.com This article first published 2003 Practising Midwife 6(11):23. Republished with permission for personal use only. Page numbers do not correspond to the original. Please do not reproduce/reprint without prior permission, thank you. When I first became involved with birth centres in the USA, they were seen as something of a compromise by many of those involved in setting them up; offering neither the benefits of the hospital surgical facilities, nor the environmental advantages of being at home (Katz Rothman 1983). Yet the compromise worked, with birth centres springing up in different states and offering women havens for normal birth experiences amidst a rising cesarean rate and proliferation of birth technology. Although some of these birth centres have inevitably fallen along the way, others are now well-established community centres, celebrating significant birthdays with the help of hundreds of the children who were born there.