Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 125 of the Listening Time Podcast.
I hope everyone's doing great.
Thank you for listening and keep up the good work with your English practice.
I know that a lot of you struggle to stay motivated, sometimes because it doesn't feel like you're making progress, and But you are.
If you're practicing, you're listening, you're doing this on a regular basis, you're improving.
Just trust the process and know that this takes a lot of time.
So in today's episode, we're going to talk about pregnancy.
And more specifically, I'm going to talk about getting prenatal care from a birth center.
So I'm not just going to talk about pregnancy in general.
I'm going to talk about birth centers and going through your pregnancy with a birth center.
Most of you probably don't even know what a birth center is, and I'm going to explain that in just a bit.
But I'm just introducing this topic now.
The title of this episode is just pregnancy because that will be easier for people to understand.
But I'm going to talk about going through a birth center during your pregnancy and because my wife and I have a lot of experience with birth centers and I'm sure that a lot of you will be interested in learning about birth centers.
What are they?
This is an alternative to giving birth at a hospital.
So I'm going to talk a little bit about that today.
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All right, let's get started.
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Okay, let's talk about pregnancy and birth centers.
So before I start, I want to mention that I'm not giving any advice here.
I'm not telling you what to do, and I'm not telling you that you should use a birth center.
I'm just giving an overall view of what a birth center is so you can learn about it.
So what is a birth center?
A birth center is a healthcare facility that specializes in childbirth and it is not a hospital.
It's different from a traditional hospital.
So it's a facility that you go to if you choose not to get your prenatal care from a hospital and you want a different experience for your prenatal care.
By the way, the phrase prenatal care refers to the care that you get when you're pregnant, before you give birth.
So that's prenatal.
And then postnatal is everything after the birth.
So you can go to a birth center to get your prenatal care and you will interact with midwives at a birth center.
If you don't know what a midwife is, this is a person who specializes in childbirth.
Nowadays it's common for doctors to deliver babies, but before that it was always midwives who delivered babies.
These are the people who have delivered babies for many, many years, many centuries.
So midwives still exist.
Even hospitals in the U.S. have midwives a lot of the time.
So even if you give birth at a hospital, there still might be a midwife there who delivers your baby.
So this is still a profession that people have.
And if you go to a birth center, you'll be taken care of by different midwives.
These are the people who usually run the birth center, right?
When we say that someone runs something we're saying that they Operate it they control it, right?
So birth centers are run by midwives and these are the people that help to Deliver your baby and also help you through your pregnancy and even after you give birth so these are midwives and And there are other people that sometimes work at birth centers or that might be friends with the midwives at these birth centers and sometimes help out for example doulas a doula is Kind of like a birth assistant This is a person that helps you give birth they're like a coach and a partner and Someone that helps you through this process when you're giving birth and they do many other things as well and And there are other specialists that birth centers are often affiliated with, or maybe they have some contacts. that specialize in other things.
For example, lactation consultants and massage therapists and people like that.
So all of these types of people might work at birth centers, or they might work in association with different birth centers.
So they're not doctors.
Usually they are midwives or doulas or whatever something other than just a medical doctor.
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And what is the birth center like?
Well, it's not like a hospital.
That's for sure.
It's like the exact opposite of a hospital.
When you go inside a birth center, it usually feels more like your home, to be honest.
It's a very relaxing and soothing environment.
The word soothing just means relaxing.
It's something that makes you feel calm and relaxed.
So the environment is very soothing.
It feels very comfortable.
I don't know about you, but when I go to a hospital, I feel extremely uneasy.
The word uneasy means that you're uncomfortable with something.
So I feel extremely uneasy when I'm at the hospital.
It's a very cold environment.
I don't like the feeling there.
However, At birth centers, the environment is extremely comfortable and soothing.
There are couches and beds and nice decorations and all kinds of stuff.
And these birth centers are different from hospitals in that they are much less restrictive.
So at hospitals you have to follow very strict rules and procedures and And you don't have a lot of freedom to choose different things that you might want.
Whereas at a birth center, you choose almost everything.
So they ask you about how you want your birth to be, how you want this to go.
And you tell them exactly what you want.
And They try to replicate that as much as possible.
And so you can have your perfect birth experience.
So it's much less restrictive than giving birth at a hospital.
And you also have a lot of things that can aid you in giving birth.
When you aid someone, this means that you help someone.
So there are many things that can aid you during the birth process when you're at a birth center.
So they have things like tubs of water, like a small pool of warm water.
And many women love to give birth in the tub in water.
A lot of people like this.
So you have that.
You have all kinds of different tools to help you get into different positions, to make it easier for you.
So you have a lot of things that can help you.
And, of course, if there are major complications that happen, then you will transfer to a hospital, of course.
But that's mostly just for emergencies, like if you're gonna need an emergency C-section, then of course you end up transferring to a hospital.
By the way, the term C-section refers to a cesarean.
So if you need a C-section, that's not done at a birth center.
So if you have some type of emergency, then you'll transfer to a hospital nearby and they'll do what they need to do.
But the midwives can do a lot.
Really they can do most things that you would need them to do, except for emergency procedures like C-sections and things like that.
But in most cases, you just give birth there at the birth center and it's very comfortable.
So how do the appointments work during your pregnancy at a birth center?
Well, number one, appointments are very comfortable.
It's a very comfortable environment.
Like I mentioned earlier, Usually there is a couch or a bed that's really comfortable.
They usually have good lighting, not really bright, intense lights like at a hospital.
They have nicer lights that make you feel more comfortable and all kinds of things that make you feel more at home.
And you can bring your family often to these appointments.
Like if you have another young child already, you can usually bring them.
And of course, your spouse, you can all go together.
It's a very nice environment when you have these appointments.
And one thing that you'll notice is that these appointments are long.
They're often over an hour long, whereas doctor's appointments are usually short.
I'm sure most of you would agree.
So these appointments are long and you don't feel rushed.
You feel like you can take your time, which is really nice.
And you have many appointments.
So throughout your pregnancy, if you do the whole program, you get your prenatal care from a birth center.
Starting from early on in your pregnancy you're gonna have a lot of appointments because the midwives really wanna get to know you.
They wanna have a lot of time to get to know your preferences, what you want for your birth, your likes and dislikes, your fears, all of that kind of stuff.
They take a lot of time to get to know you And, of course, they allow you to ask questions, and it's common for the mother or the father to come in with tons of questions.
And the midwives always encourage you to ask all of your questions.
It's really nice because sometimes when you go to a doctor's appointment, They don't really want to sit through all of your questions and address every one of your concerns and you feel more rushed.
So that's not the case at most birth centers.
You can ask all of your questions, you can raise all of your concerns, and they listen to you.
It's very nice.
I'm not saying that that never happens in a hospital setting.
I'm just saying that at birth centers, This is the norm.
Whereas during doctor's appointments, this isn't always done like that, of course.
And at your appointments, of course, they check your vitals.
This just means that they check the important signs like your blood pressure and heart rate and things like that.
And Sometimes they might do blood work or they might take urine samples from you so they can see if everything's going okay with you.
They can see if you need to take certain supplements or whatever.
And of course, you also get to listen to your baby.
You get to listen to their heartbeat and which is really cool.
You usually do that at each appointment.
And some birth centers might have ultrasounds there.
However usually, if I'm not mistaken, maybe they might have a technician who comes in to do ultrasounds, or you might need to go somewhere else for ultrasounds, because at some birth centers they might not have technicians who can come in and do this.
So you might be referred to a different doctor to go do ultrasounds.
So I think that just depends.
So that's something that you experience as well.
Maybe in the birth center or outside, but many people have ultrasounds during their pregnancy.
And there are also postnatal visits.
So after you give birth, they don't just desert you and leave you on your own.
By the way, if we say that someone deserts you, this means that they abandon you somewhere.
So they don't just desert you and move on.
They actually check up on you and you might have a couple postnatal visits, and that's pretty typical at birth centers.
And another thing is that birth centers often offer classes as part of the whole package that you buy.
So you might have a number of different classes helping you with preparation for the birth and everything surrounding that.
And about the birth itself and about different positions that you can be in about postnatal care, all kinds of stuff.
So I remember going through many classes with the birth center before we had my son.
And we learned a ton during that time.
That was really cool.
So that's another thing that you can get at birth centers.
And then during the actual birth, birth centers work a little bit differently than hospitals.
So the midwives will be on call every, meaning that you'll have their number.
You'll be communicating with them around the time when you go into labor and they'll just make sure they know what's happening with you and you'll decide when it's right for to drive to the birth center so that you can start the birth process.
And then once you're at the birth center, then you have a lot of freedom.
This is a little bit different than in hospitals.
So at a birth center, you can be in any position that you want.
You can stand, you can walk around the room, You can lie on the bed, you can go into the pool with the water, you can sit on the toilet.
You can do whatever you want.
And that's something that's really cool, because it allows you to feel as comfortable as possible so that you're more likely to have a smooth birth process.
And they have a lot of these different aids, these different tools that can help you.
A lot of different things that I don't even know the names of, to be honest.
So I can't really talk so much about them.
But they have a lot of interesting things that help you get into better positions to help with the process.
And it's very likely that you'll have a doula.
Remember this birth assistant, right, who helps you through the whole process.
And the doula really helps.
They will do everything to make you as comfortable as possible with, and they'll help you relieve your pain.
They do all kinds of things.
They're amazing, really.
And you also have the freedom to decide who catches the baby.
So maybe you want your husband to catch the baby.
That's something that some people decide.
And you can really choose everything.
You can decide exactly how you want it to be.
And they're really good at respecting your choices and So that's really cool.
I didn't catch my son when he was born, but I know that other fathers have done that.
That's pretty cool.
And another thing that's good about birth centers is when you give birth, they encourage skin to skin contact immediately.
So immediately when your baby is born, They put the baby on your chest.
You get that immediate contact, that immediate bonding.
And they also delay the cord clamping usually.
So they don't cut the umbilical cord too soon, right?
They allow more time to pass before cutting it.
So that's great.
And nobody takes your baby away from you.
You're never separated from your baby during this process.
So I really like that aspect as well.
And so overall, as you can see, going through a birth center for your pregnancy and your birth and all of this care is usually for people who don't like the hospital environment and People who aren't comfortable in hospitals and people who feel like they can give birth more comfortably in a place, in an environment that's more soothing, that doesn't have as many restrictions, right.
Or for people who don't really like the practices at many hospitals and people who want to make their own choices about how their birth will be.
So for people like that, birth centers are great because they offer you that freedom, they offer you the opportunity to kind of construct your birth plan and And of course, they offer you a really nice environment and they make it easier for you to give birth.
So that's kind of an overall summary of birth centers.
I'm sure for a lot of you, this was an entirely new subject.
So I hope that you learned a lot and that you might learn more about birth centers if you're interested in them.
But even if you're not interested in them, I hope this episode was good practice for your listening.
And remember to sign up for my new podcast, US Conversations, if you feel like you're ready to start practicing with real conversations between native speakers.
This podcast will be perfect for you because you also have the transcript with definitions of key words and phrases.
So go down below and sign up.
That's patreon.com slash us conversations.
And if you want my advanced episodes, then make sure to become a listening time family member and you'll get two new advanced episodes every month.
The link is also down below.
And of course, the links are down below to my ebook, my collection of three short mystery stories for Spanish or Portuguese speakers who want to read fiction in English with a translation in either Spanish or Portuguese.
So check that out if you're interested.
And if you like this podcast, please give it a five-star rating and write a review and share it with anyone else you know who's learning English.
All right, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
