When staying home isn’t an option, The Village Birth Center is a fully independent, stand-alone birth center that can be your home-away-from home. You can experience the same intimate, private setting as a homebirth. The Village Birth Center provides birthing options for low-risk pregnant people and healthy babies.

The Village Birth Center is located in Newport News, Virginia, near Historic Hilton Village. The Center is inside The Children’s Clinic building; beloved area pediatricians for over 60 years. The Historic Hilton Village area offers cobblestone sidewalks, boutique shopping, and a variety of restaurants. The Village Birth Center is also located within walking distance of a public library, a playground, and a beach.

The birth center is equipped with a kitchenette stocked with snacks but with room for you to bring your favorites. You can make a meal or brew some coffee, tea, or cocoa. There is no limit on eating and drinking while you are in labor.

There is also no limit on who can be at your birth but, if you need your tribe to stay in the waiting room, there is free WiFi (throughout) & TVs with access to NetFlix, Hulu, Prime and other channels.

Each birthing room has gentle lighting, a comfortable bed, access to birthing balls & stools, a diffuser (so feel free to bring your favorite essential oils, or use ours), access to a TENS unit for pain management, and birthing tubs. You can walk and move freely during labor and during your delivery.

We practice delayed cord clamping and, after the birth, all assessments are done at the bedside.

New families are usually discharged within 3-5 hours; when everyone is stable and ready to make the drive.

Sometimes a need to transfer to hospital develops; if that happens, rest assured that there is a plan for that.

The practitioners at The Village Birth Center are trained in Neonatal Resuscitation (NRP) and CPR. They practice emergency drills throughout the year which gives them an opportunity to improve how they respond to emergencies if they occur. They are trained to recognize when there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

After you get home, you should spend all of your recovery time in bed with baby; your first outing should be to take baby to the pediatrician during the first week.

The midwife will come to you for your first postpartum visit at 24-48 hours. At that appointment, the midwife will check your vital signs, your uterus, your bleeding and your breastfeeding. They will also check baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels to confirm that baby is transitioning smoothly to life.

You may return to The Birth Center for postpartum care as often as you like. We recommend coming at 1 week, 2 weeks, 3-4 weeks, and 6-8 weeks for continued postpartum care.