No. Only clients who have been accepted into care with a Registered Alberta Midwife can use the Birth Centre. We do not provide you with a midwife and it is your responsibility to acquire a midwife. Please apply for midwifery care here and select Lucina Birth Centre as your preferred birthing location.
FAQs
No. Only clients who have been accepted into care with a Registered Alberta Midwife can use the Birth Centre. We do not provide you with a midwife and it is your responsibility to acquire a midwife. Please apply for midwifery care here and select Lucina Birth Centre as your preferred birthing location.
The birth centre does not include a midwife to attend your birth. You must apply on your own to acquire midwifery care. To apply for an Alberta Registered Midwife in the area, click here.
The cost of the birth centre is $650 (no GST).
More details about fees and refunds here.
This fee does not include midwifery services. This fee includes use of the birthing suite on the day of your birth, all medical supplies, and all linens. It also includes a delicious home-made pumpkin spiced waffle breakfast complete with fruit & yogurt parfait and tea/coffee/juice for both the Birther and their companion. Special dietary requests can be accommodated upon request. More details about our amenities here.
Yes, tours are by appointment only. Click here to see our upcoming tour dates and our virtual tour.
If you have supplementary health insurance/benefits plan through your employer, this expense may be submitted by you and reimbursed as a “Private Hospital Room” expense. It may also be claimable through your Health/Wellness Spending Account. **Please note: we do not direct bill to your insurance company and we have no information regarding what your plan will cover. Please call them directly to find out. If you need specific details on your invoice, let manager know after booking.
You can also claim the birth centre fees from your income tax as a medical expense.
Our registration process is simple! Once you’ve filled out the registration form, we will send you an invoice and a agreement to pay and sign online. Once your initial payment is made, you’re all set and you’ll receive email confirmation.
Our refund policy is very reasonable and is outlined here.
Lucina Birth Centre stands firmly in knowing that you deserve to feel safe and comfortable during your birth experience, regardless of your race, religion, culture, gender identity, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status.
We proudly hang the rainbow flag in our suites and common areas. All of the language used in our communications, website, and handouts are intentionally inclusive. We acknowledge the truth and beauty of the land that we occupy and the people who called it home before us. Our stunning art work throughout the facility highlights different cultures and races. All cultural, religious, and ceremonial practices are welcome here. And we offer financial support to help cover the cost of the birth centre fee to those who are facing systematic barriers and could not otherwise afford this option.
Learn more about our Lucina Family Support Fund here.
You are safe and you are welcome.
Our mission as a non-profit organization is to be accessible to everyone, especially those facing systematic and financial barriers in the birthing community. Through donations from people like you and grants, we can offer subsidy for our birth centre fees for birthers facing these obstacles (people of colour, Indigenous birthers, 2SLGBTQI+, young parents, single parents). You have the power to help someone have an empowered out-of-hospital birthing experience! Details about the fund are found here.
Yes, we welcome cultural practice and religious/spiritual ceremonies.
We do not have a limit on support people. Please speak directly to your midwife regarding their comfort levels with the number of people in the room during your labour & birth.
Water labour and birth provides a relaxing environment for the birthing person to be in while labouring and giving birth. This can lower blood pressure, reduce the feeling of pain, reduce the incidence of perineal tears, and offer a gentle space for the baby to be born. The baby is helped out of the water by the midwife, partner, or birth person them self. The baby will appear calm and relaxed and may cry less after delivery. Some people say that water birth is the natural epidural! Details and evidence can be found here.
After your baby is born, you will stay in your birthing room for about 3-5 hours and be discharged to your home (this is also true for home birth and hospital birth with a midwife). After you have eaten the delicious breakfast, showered, fed baby, and both you and baby have been thoroughly assessed by your midwife, you will be discharged home. You will ample time to relax and enjoy the amenities. Your midwife will then arrange to see you at home, usually the next day.
In the event that you need to transfer to the hospital from the the birth centre, your midwife will arrange this by ambulance or by driving in your own vehicle’s, depending on the situation. If you do need to transfer by ambulance, you will receive a bill in the mail from AHS.
The most common pain relief option used at Lucina Birth Centre is the large water tubs. We also have exercise balls, donut balls, peanut balls, birth stools, birth sling/swing, Entonox (laughing gas/nitrous oxide), homeopathic and herbal remedies, intradermal water injections, and TENS machines, and more! We do not provide narcotic injections such as morphine, fentanyl or epidural anesthesia.
No. The birth centre does not have an anesthesiologist or nursing support too administer an epidural or manage it’s risks. Therefore, there is no option for an epidural at our facility. However, you have the right to choose in your birth. If you decide you need an epidural, you and your midwife will transfer to the hospital together where they will continue to care for you there.
The fee for birth centre still applies even in the event of a transfer to hospital.
Because there are significant risks involved in epidurals, medical inductions, narcotic pain relief (fentynol and morphine), must be in hospital when these interventions are required. Discuss this with your midwife if you have more questions.
In specific situations, a midwife may offer a “castor oil cocktail” to induce labour (ask your midwife for more details). This is not a medical induction and does not impact your admission to the birth centre.
In some situations, someone will go to hospital to induce labour with cervadil/foley bulb, go home to rest, and then come to birth centre once active labour is established *if it happens on it’s own from that point.
**If an induction requires IV syntocin (also known as pitocin or oxytocin), then you must be in hospital due to the associated risks. Discuss this with your midwife if you have more questions.
Registered Midwives are health care professionals who are highly trained to deal with all potential labour and delivery related emergencies. Lucina Birth Centre has all necessary neonatal resuscitation equipment and emergency medical supplies & medications on hand. When an emergency transfer is necessary, the Misericordia Community Hospital is 5 minutes from the centre. For more information please consult your midwife.
If you’re interested in our statistics (raw data analyzed from all births from opening in 2011 to Dec 2023; sample size 1981 people):
Birthing Rate: 83% of people who come to Lucina Birth Centre in labour actually give birth here
Hospital Transfer Rate: 17% of people who come to Lucina Birth Centre in labour transfer to hospital.
EMS Transfer Rate in Labour: 3% of people who transferred to hospital in labour used EMS transport (worth noting that majority of these were for pain-management and not a medical emergency). Most people who transfer are non-urgent and do drive to hospital in their own personal vehicles.
Postpartum Transfer Rate: 3.8% of birthers needed to be transported to hospital after birth for further care/monitoring.
Neonatal Transfer Rate: 1.8% of babies needed to be transported to hospital for further care/monitoring.
No. The cost of an ambulance is privately paid, whether you are an Alberta citizen or not. They have all of your information and you will receive a bill in the mail.
We rely on the discretion of your skilled Registered Midwife to assess whether or not you’re a good candidate for an out-of-hospital birth. We do not ask you for any of this personal information. You and your midwife will decide, together, if the birth centre is a good fit for you and your pregnancy. If your midwife deems you eligible for an out-of-hospital birth, you’re welcome to register!