BirthLink Providers
Click a category:

• Acupuncturists
• Alternative & Free Standing Birth Centers
• Birth Consulting
• Birth Doulas
• Birth Instructors

• Birth Musicians
• Breastfeeding Support
• Chiropractors
• Counselors
• Cranial Sacral Therapy

• Doctors
• Energy Medicine
• Exercise Pre/Postnatal
• Fertility
• Herbalists

• Home Birth Practitioners - Midwives and Doctors
• Homeopathy
• Hypnotherapists
• Infant and Child Massage
• Labor Monitrice

• Massage and Bodywork Therapists
• Midwives - Hospital Based
• Naprapaths
• Naturopathic Doctor
• Nursery Design and Set-up

• Nutritionists
• Parenting Resources and Support Services
• Pediatric Holistic Care
• Photographers
• Physical and Occupational Therapy

• Postpartum Caregivers
• Postpartum Doulas
• Pre/Postnatal Yoga
• Water Birth & Tub Providers
• Women's Health
• Women's Ritual
  

Alternative and Free Standing

Birth Centers

Alternative Birth Centers are actually special rooms on the regular labor and delivery ward within the hospital. The birthing suites are larger and have more natural birth equipment, sometimes including special hydrotherapy tubs. The main difference between regular L & D (labor and delivery) and the ABC (alternative birth center) is that you must commit to having a natural childbirth and all staff and your primary care will do everything they can to help make that happen. If some complication does arise, or you change you mind, you will be transferred to the regular ward. Many parents have reported having very special experiences

with the ABC. Some have called it the next best

thing to birthing at home!

Free standing birth centers are separate facilities from hospitals.  Illinois, the only state, had a law against them until recently. The process of reversing the law and establishing new rules and regulations has been a long one. While we are waiting for someone to build one here, a group of Certified Professional Midwives are creating one just over the boarder in Wisconson - where CPM's and free standing birth centers are licensed and regulated. It will be in operation soon!

Be sure to check the Midwives category for more information on licensing for midwives in Illinois.

See alphabetical listings below. Please contact the practitioner directly to schedule an appointment or if you have any questions. Be sure to let them know BirthLink sent you!

 

SPOTLIGHT:
Every mother, childbirth educator, physician, or midwife who has spoken out about the normalcy of birth or written about the need for change has contributed to what has become a gentle birth revolution.
Barbara Harper - Gentle Birth Choices

Why not have the spotlight on you and your services?
You can rent this space to gain extra exposure for your business.
Call 847-733-8050 for more information.