West Virginia Code of State Rules › Agency 64 - Health › Title 64 - LEGISLATIVE RULE WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN RESOURCES › Series 64-31 - Birthing Center Licensure › Section 64-31-4 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 28, July 12, 2024
4.1. Applicant -
				The person who submits an application for an original or a renewal license to
				operate a birthing center or birthing service.
4.2. Birthing Center - A type of facility
				which is a building, house or the equivalent organized to provide facilities
				and staff to support a birthing service for pregnant clients. A birthing center
				should be an adaptation of a home environment to a short-stay ambulatory health
				care facility where low risk births are planned to occur away from the mother's
				usual residence following normal uncomplicated pregnancy.
4.3. Birthing Service - The prenatal,
				intrapartum, and post partum care provided for individuals with uncomplicated
				pregnancy, labor and vaginal birth and newborn care during the recovery
				period.
4.4. Client - A woman,
				fetus, or newborn receiving care and services provided by a birthing center
				during pregnancy, childbirth and recovery.
4.5. Clinical Staff - Physicians,
				nurse-midwives, midwives and nurses appointed by the governing body of the
				birthing center to practice within the birthing center.
4.6. Department - The West Virginia
				department of health.
4.7. Director
				- The director of the West Virginia department of health or his or her lawfully
				appointed designee.
4.8. Gender -
				The pronoun "he" shall denote both the masculine and feminine gender. The use
				of any word denoting the masculine gender shall be taken to apply to both
				females and males.
4.9. Governing
				Body - The individual, agency, group or corporation, appointed, elected or
				otherwise designated, in which the ultimate responsibility and authority for
				the conduct of the birthing center is vested.
4.10. License - The document issued by the
				director which constitutes the authority to receive patients and perform
				services included within the scope of these regulations.
4.11. Licensed or Registered or Certified -
				When applied to a person means that the person to whom the term is applied is
				duly licensed or registered or certified to practice a profession by the proper
				authority within the State of West Virginia and when applied to a facility
				means that the facility is duly licensed by the department of health.
4.12. Low Risk Maternal Client - An
				individual who is in general good health who participates in ongoing prenatal
				care and a maternity health education program, and who has no major medical,
				psychological or sociological problems, and who has had no significant
				obstetrical complications which are likely to recur, and who is anticipated to
				have a medically, psychologically and sociologically uncomplicated course of
				pregnancy and labor, including a vaginal birth, and who is expected to
				accomplish birth without the use of general anesthesia.
4.13. Nurse-Midwife - An individual licensed
				in West Virginia as a nurse-midwife.
4.14. Recovery - That period of time starting
				at the birth and ending with the discharge of a client from the birthing center
				or the period of time between the birth and the time a client leaves the
				premises of the birthing center.
4.15. Support Person - The individual
				selected or chosen by a maternal client to provide support and assistance
				during the process of labor and childbirth.