Background: The Alternative Birth Centre (ABC) is a midwife-led unit which offers low-risk women integrated, individualised antenatal, intrapartum and postpartum care.
Material and methods: The study included 432 women who received their care at the ABC from November 1997 until July 2000. Demographic information and details about antenatal care were recorded for all women. Information about labour, delivery and the postnatal period were recorded for the 341 women who started their labour at the ABC.
Results: Of the 432 women who started their care at the ABC, 265 (61.3 %) gave birth there, 100 (38 %) were primiparous while 165 (62.3 %) were multiparous. 84 (19.4 %) women were not suitable for birth at the ABC for reasons such as preterm birth, postterm pregnancies, breech presentation and preeclampsia, and were referred back to their own hospital during pregnancy. Among the 341 women that started labour at the ABC, 76 (22 %) were transferred to the obstetrical department during labour. Three reasons accounted for 88 % off all transfers during labour: failure to progress (n = 34, 44.7 %), need for continuous fetal monitoring (n = 20, 26.3 %), and the need for pharmacological pain relief (n = 13, 17.1 %). Of the 76 women transferred in labour, 42 had a spontaneous vaginal birth while 36 (44.7 %) women had an operative delivery, 14 caesarean section, 16 vacuum extraction and 1 of them forceps delivery. One baby born at the ABC had an Apgar score below 7 at 5 min. ABC is a safe alternative to standard care for low-risk women.