Austin Area Birthing Center

Don't even bother contacting them unless you fit a very narrow profile of patient. I'm in perfect health, no complications at all, fully insured, but I was turned away because of my work schedule. I travel out of state for my job, so I would have had to have one of my prenatal exams at another facility, and I would have had to take some of the classes at another facility, most of which I already had lined up, but still I was told "you're not a good fit for our facility." Apparently their classes are so unique, so rarefied, that no other facility could possibly be up to their standards.



So I'm left with the options of a facility without a single CNM on staff, or a hospital birth at Christmas time (the rates of C-sections go up during the holidays). Home birth is out of the question, It's too risky and if anything goes wrong I don't live close to a hospital. Basically I'm just screwed, simply because they can't be bothered to work with a working mother. They wouldn't even see me for a preliminary appointment. I found out I'm pregnant just as we started the process of moving to Austin from North Carolina, and I was so comforted to see there was a well regarded, well staffed facility in the city. Now I'm rethinking our move to Austin simply because I don't know where I can have this baby.



To sum up, working mothers beware, they have no sympathy for the fact that some of us still have to earn a living while pregnant.

This was my 3rd baby to have with AABC. The front office ladies greet you by first name and make you feel welcome. The midwives take time at each appt to answer your questions and make you feel at ease about your pregnancy. The birthing rooms are beautiful and peaceful. I went home 8 hours later and loved it so I could spend time at home with my other kids.

We just recently had our second baby delivered at AABC, and we loved our experiences. We have great confidence in the birthing center. I'm an engineer who likes to know every little detail, and I'm very conservative with medical care.



Birth is not an illness. It's a normal, natural part of life, and I feel like the birthing center assisted with this natural miracle. The reason why the midwives are much better than a doctor for care: midwives take the time (30 minutes-an hour each visit) to answer questions and explain every part of the process. With something like pregnancy, diet, rest, and awareness seem to play one of the biggest roles (as 99% of the time, the actual birth has no complications). So often in our society, pregnancy is viewed as an illness with a surgery at the end of it; birth is a natural, spiritual experience that shouldn't be viewed in that same light.



In any case, we had great experiences.



The reasons why I chose the birthing center over home birth:

- No mess to clean up and no stress to set everything up (the tub, the clean stuff, etc)... just show up

- Several midwives... there are 3-4 midwives that you will meet with several times before your baby is born. The great thing about this system is that at any given time, you can get any one of the three midwives (who are all very capable), meaning... the midwife that you get will be well-rested, having been on call for maybe 4 hours, and you will always have someone available for you.

- More clinical... We don't come from a completely hippie background, so for us we liked the slight feeling of a doctor's office (though with personal care)

The mom who wrote this review was a patient at least 3 yrs. ago since "Faith" has not worked here since Oct. of 05. The first time I read this negative review was 3 yrs. ago on a different site.



The only time a refund would be withheld as in her case, might be when the insurance had not paid us yet so there was no money to refund. Our new financial lady, Denise can answer all billing, refund, and insurance questions and is here from 8am to 2pm daily.

Otherwise ANY concerns about billing OR care can be addressed with our staff or myself at any time, my door is always open and I am willing to try and solve any concerns that arise.

Our clinical director is Joan Smith, RN CNM MSN and is available for clinical concerns at 346-3224.

My email is jstokes@austinabc.com



We are always sad and a bit disappointed when someone leaves our care but we realize that even though the vast majority of our families are very happy we may not be able to please everyone and some may not be a good fit for our center.