Welcome to Rise Birth Center! The idea of opening a birth center was born out of a passion for birth. The founder is a certified doula and the more births she attended, the more obvious it became there should be another option for mothers! It’s quite difficult to have a birth free of intervention in the UAE. Mothers are vastly missing the opportunity to fully experience her strength; not just physically, but also mentally to be the decision maker. Sometimes women are not given the opportunity to be an active part of the labor and delivery decisions. The birth experience plays into a mother’s confidence; imagine the difference between a mom who feels like superwoman after birth vs a mother who is still reeling over what was done ‘to her’. Bonding with the new baby will be different which also has a knock-on affect to breastfeeding. Evidence shows uncomplicated births increase mother-baby bonding and higher breastfeeding rates.
Rise is being created to offer a choice for women to take control of their own birth experience with the safety net of midwifery. It will offer full prenatal care and education, physiological birth without intervention, and more frequent and complete post-partum care. Birth Center births ending in cesearan section are globally lower than hospital births; a US study showed for all low risk mothers, those who used a birth center had 50% less cesearean sections than the low risk mothers using a hospital. Countries that have a higher midwife to doctor ratio are proportional to better outcomes, ie more midwives equates to better overall birth statistics.
There is still work to do with the government and finances, but there has been progress!
Within UAE there is a genuine desire to shift the birth culture, the time is now! Rise and the supportive community will put UAE on the map as a leader in the middle east of best birthing practices. There’s a lot to look forward to!