Schiltigheim. Giving birth "in the hospital but not in the hospital": a birthing center is planned for 2026

"This is an extremely exciting project for the future: another way of bringing a child into the world," said the mayor of Schiltigheim, Danielle Dambach , on Tuesday, July 12.

This project involves opening a birthing center on the CMCO premises. It would be the second in Alsace ( there is already one in Sélestat ), and therefore the first in the Eurometropolis. In concrete terms, "women give birth in the hospital but not in the hospital," summarizes Nadine Knezovic-Daniel, midwifery coordinator at the CMCO. "These are independent midwives who rent a space and come with their patients," she continues.

In these birthing centers, midwives provide "comprehensive care." It is the same midwife who accompanies the mother from the early stages of pregnancy through to delivery. Pregnancies in a birthing center are physiological, meaning they have little or no medical care. "It's as if they were giving birth at home," analyzes Nadine Knezovic-Daniel.

With 6,000 births per year, at the Hautepierre Hospital and the CMCO combined, Strasbourg University Hospital is the third-largest maternity hospital in France. It is now one of the only ones in France to "offer the full range of birth plans," the midwifery coordinator said. According to an Ifop survey commissioned by the national collective of birth centers in 2024, 15% of women surveyed said they would have liked to give birth in a birth center. However, in 2023, only 583 births took place in these centers, representing less than 1% of births.

With the signing of this agreement between Strasbourg hospitals, the Eurometropolis and the Berç'O association, 100 pregnancies per year will be able to be monitored in the CMCO birthing center, or 1.7% in the Eurometropolis alone.

"The main thing is that we can meet the needs of our regions and give women a choice," emphasizes Strasbourg Mayor Jeanne Barseghian . The opening of this space is expected to take place in 2026.