Abstract

This project seeks to establish a midwifery-led birth centre that supports maternal well-being and promotes a positive, empowered birth experience. This can be achieved by prioritising choice, control, continuity of care and salutogenesis during the design process. Focused exclusively on physiological, low-risk births, the facility provides antenatal and postnatal care services, labour and recovery rooms, counselling services, medical student practicals, community doula training, educational courses, daycare facilities, and supportive communal areas, including family waiting spaces.

The project responds to systemic challenges within the healthcare system, where clinical efficiency often outweighs maternal experience and well-being. The project seeks to support a shift from institutional control to maternal intuition, restoring agency and choice and recognising women as active participants in their birth journey. Current birth architecture often fails to meet these needs, constraining rather than supporting the natural progression of labour through its spatial practices. To understand the needs of the space, spatial practices in both medical and midwife-led environments were analysed to inform design guidelines that ensure the birth environment responds to women’s lived experiences and needs.

Situated in Mamelodi, an informal settlement east of Pretoria Central, also known as “Mother of Melodies.” The selected site is located on the University of Pretoria’s Mamelodi campus, which offers a unique opportunity to support mothers in an under-resourced area while also bridging education and care. The chosen building is currently used for computer science education; however, it is largely underutilised. Its location on the edge of campus creates distance from the rest of the university and offers opportunities for greater privacy and a connection to nature and the community.

The client is the Zoe Project, a Cape Town-based NGO that empowers women through holistic maternal and infant health services in under-resourced areas. Key stakeholders include the University of Pretoria, which will integrate the centre as a practical training ground for medical students. The centre will serve a broad range of users, including expectant and postpartum women, birth partners and families, midwives, interns, and community members engaged in doula training and maternal education.

Guided by the theoretical framework of spatial practice, the design concept, A Natural Melody in Motion, shapes the space as a birth melody, offering gentle orientation, agency, sensory support, freedom of movement and areas for cohabitation and connection. Ultimately, the intervention supports maternal networks, bridges education and care, and creates a more humanised, empowering birthing environment rooted in care and community.

Keywords: Midwife-led Birth Environment, Maternal well-being, Choice and control, Melody, Continuity of care, Salutogenesis