Behind the Scenes at a Birthing Center

A New Option

The birth of every baby is special, but on March 9, 2003, my son and I made history. My delivery was unremarkable, and my son's middle-of-the-night birth had few witnesses. But when Adam came into the world at the Madison Birth Center, he became the first baby born at a free-standing birth center in Wisconsin.

It was a first for me as well. My two previous births had taken place in hospitals. Then I saw a newspaper headline that changed our lives: "Birth Center Comes to Life." I was five months pregnant. The rest, as they say, is history.