A new birthing option for pregnant women and their families is now available to the women of the Lake Region in Maine and the Mount Washington Valley of New Hampshire.

The Birth House LLC, a freestanding, midwife owned and operated birth center on South High Street in Bridgton will be providing maternity services in a home-like environment for women who want to experience their pregnancies and births the natural way.

The Birth House will celebrate its grand opening on Thursday, July 26 from 5-7 p.m. and invites all who would like to tour the center, speak with the midwives or explore this birthing option to join us. Healthy snacks, door prizes, informational literature and informal tours will be available to the public. Children are welcome.

The Birth House is a new service being offered by Birthwise Midwifery Service midwives Robin Doolittle, CPM, Heidi Fillmore-Patrick, CPM, and AnnMarie RianWanzeck, CPM.

They will continue to provide home birth services as they have for the past 16 years in the Lake Region and are happy to be able to offer this new birthing option to the community.

The Birth House offers clients a comfortable, private, relaxing environment in which to give birth in the way they choose, including access to a birthing tub for waterbirths and all the comforts of home for their family and friends.

The Birth House midwives are experts in normal, natural pregnancy and birth and work to prevent complications through health promotion, education, emotional and physical support, non-intervention in the natural process, patience, and building trust and confidence in their pregnant clients.

A Birth House midwife will provide one-on-one, individualized and continuous care throughout your pregnancy, birth and post partum period. The midwives safely transfer care to a hospital or physician if complications arise that are outside their scope of practice; this occurs with approximately 5 to 10 percent of clients.

The midwives at The Birth House are nationally certified, direct-entry midwives who specialize in birth outside the conventional hospital setting. They are also licensed midwives in New Hampshire and receive Medicaid reimbursement for their clients who are residents of New Hampshire.

If you are curious about this new birthing option, we hope to see you on July 26 to see for yourself what The Birth House is all about. Also, visit our Web site at www.thebirthhousebridgton.com or call647-5968 for more information and to schedule a free consult visit with the midwives.

AnnMarie RianWanzeck, CPM, Heidi Fillmore-Patrick, CPM, and Robin Doolittle, CPM in the birth room at The Birth House, a new freestanding birth center in Bridgton.