The cries of newborns will soon be ringing out in Regent Park when Toronto’s first birth centre run by midwives opens its doors.

Long past its due date, the Toronto Birth Centre is finally getting finishing touches put on its brand new facility.

The site for the pilot project, which had been kept under wraps, is the bottom two floors of a new building on Dundas St. E., just east of Parliament, amid the neighbourhood’s massive revitalization project.

The opening is imminent, though no one involved could provide a firm date. The launch had originally been planned for last summer but was delayed by logistical hurdles.

“It’s a big deal and we are really excited about it,” midwife and project co-lead Sara Wolfe said Saturday.

“This is an important step the (province) is taking.”

Being located in the heart of a vibrant and diverse downtown neighbourhood is ideal, Wolfe added, and will make provincially-funded midwifery care available to many women who might otherwise not get it.

The Toronto Birth Centre will give moms-to-be with low-risk pregnancies a new option for natural childbirth. Until now, their choices had been to give birth in hospital under the care of a physician or midwife, or at home with midwives. This will allow them to have their babies with midwives in a low-tech community setting with “a home-like feel,” says Wolfe.

The centre is expected to accommodate about 450 births a year in its three birthing rooms, which are equipped with large Jacuzzi tubs and queen-size beds and located on ground floor commercial space of a 10-storey residential building. Administration is one floor above, where lead partner Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto also has its office and clinic.

The Toronto centre is one of two pilots the Ontario Ministry of Health announced a year ago. A second one in Ottawa is also expected to welcome its first clients this month. If the $6-million pilot program is successful, it could pave the way for similar centres across the province.

Birth centres are aimed at women in good health with normal pregnancies. There will be no doctors or nurses on site. However, there are strict safeguards in place in case complications arise.

In that situation, clients at the Toronto Birth Centre can be whisked out the ambulance entrance and quickly transferred to one of the nearby downtown hospitals and the care of an obstetrician.

The opening will mark a new chapter for maternal health care in Ontario and comes after a vigorous public campaign by the Association of Ontario Midwives and parents pushing for more choice in childbirth and easier access to midwifery services, which are in high demand. Currently about 40 per cent of women who want a midwife can’t get one.

The province hopes that shifting normal birth out of hospital to a lower-cost setting will save money. It is also expected to reduce the number of medical interventions such as epidurals and inductions, which the centre won’t provide, and free up specialized obstetrical care and equipment for high-risk mothers who need it.

Midwives argue that focusing on natural birth could also decrease the rate of costly caesareans, which account for a quarter of Ontario births.

The Toronto Birth Centre will encourage families “to incorporate their own culture, background and traditions,” into prenatal and childbirth care, according to the website.

Seventh Generation, the lead practice and one of seven affiliated with the centre, specializes in the care of aboriginal clients.

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