Throughout her being pregnant, Janhavi Nilekani, founder and chairperson of the Aastrika Basis, a Bangalore, India-based non-governmental group working to enhance maternal care throughout the nation, says she needed to journey outdoors her hometown to seek out the birthing expertise she was searching for.
Though high-quality services exist, they sometimes don’t have the house or infrastructure that promote a midwifery-led mannequin of care. Moreover, the hospitals are typically extra medical as an alternative of providing mother-centric touches that assist cut back stress and help one of the best birthing outcomes.
Impressed by her expertise, Nilekani, a improvement economist by coaching, says she determined to create the muse. In September 2021, the primary Aastrika Midwifery Heart opened in Bangalore, India.
The Mumbai-based department of Perkins Eastman delivered the programming, planning, and inside design on the mission. The brand new facility affords each outpatient and inpatient companies, with a give attention to selling pure childbirth by way of a midwifery mannequin of care.
“The objectives had been to create a spot the place the design actually supported one of the best well being final result [and] to be a spot that felt joyful and welcoming,” says Nilekani. “Delivery just isn’t a illness. You’re increasing or creating your loved ones, and it needs to be a spot that feels constructive, welcoming, and joyful.”
Supportive design options
The brand new 5,300-square-foot middle is about on the primary ground of Vasavi Hospital, a multispecialty hospital that features obstetrics, a neonatal intensive care unit, and surgical companies. The association allowed each establishments to mutually develop their choices and supply the middle with entry to emergency care, if wanted.
The midwifery middle contains two outpatient rooms and a birthing unit comprising two labor and supply rooms and three antepartum/postpartum rooms with house for enlargement.
A colourful hall loops round a centrally situated nurses’ station within the birthing unit. It serves as a labor lounge the place ladies can keep energetic throughout labor, a method that’s been proven to result in higher outcomes for moms, Nilekani says.
The spacious 460-square-foot labor and supply rooms are positioned on the periphery of the hall so sufferers can profit from pure gentle. Every room options an ensuite lavatory, house for train tools (reminiscent of a ceiling-mounted beginning rope), and a bathtub for water births or immersion for ache administration.
Calming clinic setting
The room layouts additionally combine audio visible “sensory expertise” with calming imagery and specialty lighting—marking a primary in India.
“The sensory expertise creates an immersive, calming setting for the mom, supporting her whereas in labor,” says Tania Phillips, affiliate principal at Perkins Eastman (Mumbai), who led the mission.
Inside design particulars add to the middle’s heat, residential aesthetic, together with wooden supplies and pops of colour.
For instance, vibrant vinyl flooring with blue, yellow, and inexperienced highlights enhance the labor lounge hall. Wooden paneling is featured within the nurses’ station and lightweight wooden cabinetry within the affected person rooms conceals midwifery and medical tools.
“We needed ladies to be snug and to really feel like this isn’t an intimidating, medical setting. The cheerful inside was meant to lift the vitality stage of the house to make each moms and midwives really feel a bit of extra energetic,” Phillips says.
Joann Plockova is a contract author based mostly between Jupiter, Fla., and Prague, Czech Republic. She might be reached at joann.plockova@gmail.com.