DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (DOH)

STANDARD DESIGN OF A
BIRTHING CENTER
The Department of Health recognizes the importance of providing high-quality care for
pregnant women during the childbirth process. To ensure the delivery of safe and
effective care, the Department of Health has developed a standard design for birthing
health centers. These centers aim to provide an intimate and family-oriented
environment while also ensuring appropriate medical procedures are carried out as
necessary. This standard design considers the evolving field of midwifery and its
recognition in modern hospitals. The focus on providing a comfortable and supportive
environment for mothers has been a significant trend in designing birthing health centers.
These centers aim to create a space that offers both emotional and physical comfort to
the mothers, in addition to meeting their medical needs. The intention is to make the
birthing experience more intimate and family-oriented, creating an atmosphere that
resembles a home rather than a traditional hospital setting.

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Planning and Design Guidelines for Birthing Centers
Required Areas
General Administrative Service
 Waiting Area - where patients, companions,
and visitors can wait comfortably. However,
this may be located outside the birthing
clinic if there is not
 sufficient space or if there should be an
overhead cover. The waiting area can also
be situated along a corridor provided that
the width of such corridor shall not
decrease lower than 1.10m.
 Business Area -where admission, billing, and
payment transactions can be carried out,
and medical records are kept.
 Consultation and Treatment Room - where
pre- and post-natal check-ups are
conducted. It has provision for treatment.
 Toilet and Bathroom -This is a common
facility for staff and patients for a clinic with
less than six (6) bed-ward capacity,
otherwise, an additional toilet and
bathroom shall be provided proportional to
the increase of beds.
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 Janitor's Closet - to keep cleaning materials
with mop sink exclusively for the birthing
room.
Clinical Services
 Birthing Room - an area intended for normal
spontaneous delivery services. The room
shall be located far from visitors' direct
access. The minimum floor area shall be 10.
50.m with a least dimension of 3.00m.
- Birthing Area a place where the
birthing table is located.
- Sterile Instruments and Supply
Storage Area - a space within the
birthing room where medical
supplies and sterile instruments
needed for normal spontaneous
delivery are kept.
- Newborn Resuscitation Area -a
place with a flat firm surface and a
heat source
 Scrub-up area - a place where preoperative
hand washing is performed located outside
of the birthing room installed either in a
recessed wall or other open space but shall
be kept away from the main traffic flow.
 Clean-up and Sterilization Room - for the
sterilization of instruments by DOH
guidelines on Cleaning, Disinfection, and
 Sterilization of Reusable Medical Devices in
Hospital Facilities in the Philippines. (Annex
B of Administrative Order No. 2012-0012)
 Ward- A room where a woman in labor is
kept comfortable and where her vital signs,
the progress of labor, and fetal heart tones
are monitored. b.) Where relatives can give
her support. c.) It is also a room where
women recuperate after giving birth.
Supplementary Requirement
Ceiling and Room Ventilation
 A Portable Generator/Battery-operated
source of light shall be provided to keep the
birthing facility capable of handling delivery
even if the electric power supply is
disrupted.
Planning and Design
Flooring
Walls Partitions
 All walls of the Birthing Facility, in general,
shall be structurally sound, safe, and sturdy
with a minimum fire-resistant rate as
prescribed by the Fire Code of the
Philippines for this type of occupancy.
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 There shall be wall partitions in between
every adjacent working area. If such an area
requires visual and audio privacy, then, the
walls or partitions that enclose this area
shall be constructed from floor to ceiling.
 The interior walls enclosing the birthing
room shall concave at the base of the wall
towards the floor to create a seamless finish
to prevent the accumulation of dirt and
dust.
 There shall be provision of natural
ventilation for a comfortable environment
for patients and staff. Nonetheless, the air
shall be conditioned if natural ventilation is
not possible.
 Ceiling height shall conform to the
minimum standard required by the National
Building Code of the Philippines (PD 1 096).
 Floors shall be made of materials that are
non-slip, easy to clean, and resistant to
chipping.

Doors
 The minimum clear opening for the main
door shall be 0.90mand the maximum is
5 1.20m to easily accommodate patients
regardless of the type of movement.
 For the birthing room and ward, the
minimum door width is 0.90m. However, a
combination of 0.80m and 0.40m doors
with a clear width of 1.20m when both
panels are fully open is the most functional.
 Doors that can be used for emergency exits
must always lead directly outside of the
building to an open area such as the court,
yard, street or alley, interior stair, ramp, and
exterior stair. Proper signage and directions
shall be provided.
Windows
 The delivery room may have windows for
natural light and cross ventilation of natural
air, especially during routine
decontamination or cleaning, provided that
such windows shall be set at least 1.60
meters from the finished floor up to the
window sill to ensure privacy.
Lighting
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 The entire facility shall be well-lighted for
the comfort of patients and staff.
Water supply
 A water supply from an approved public
water supply system whenever available
shall be provided. However, other sources
may be tapped provided that the water
supply has undergone thorough treatment
to make it safe for human consumption.
 A water tank shall also be installed if
necessary, just to ensure that the water
supply required for the efficient function of
the facility is maintained.
Washroom and Sanitation
 The toilet and bathroom shall have the basic
fixtures of the water closet, lavatory,
shower head, and faucets, and be equipped
with sufficient and appropriate grab bars for
the patient.
Storage
 Storage cabinets shall also be provided
separately for the orderly placement and
easy access of office, equipment, medical
supplies, and instruments.
Maintenance
  There shall be a routine maintenance
program for various utility systems to
ensure a safe and healthy environment.
Waste Management
 Liquid or solid shall be collected, treated,
and disposed of following applicable codes,
laws, and local ordinances.
 The birthing home shall institute a specific
plan for disinfection and proper disposal of
the placenta. Cultural preferences or
traditional beliefs are factors that must also
be taken into consideration. Birthing
facilities that opt to put up a placenta pit
must observe the following conditions for
its construction.
- It shall be accessible only to
authorized personnel;
- It shall be located far from shallow
groundwater that may subsequently
reach nearby wells, and any body of
water such as rivers or lakes to
prevent contaminating the water
source;
- It shall not be in flood-prone areas;
- It shall be managed as a landfill to
prevent odor as well as prevent
proliferation of rodents and insects,
and;
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- The bottom of the pit shall be laid
at least 1.50 meters above ground
water level.
Signage
 All rooms must be properly labeled to
identify their function including the location
of fire exits.
 Recommended further that an emergency
evacuation plan shall be posted within the
health facility.
Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and
Fire Protection
 1 Smoking is prohibited in the entire
birthing home by R.A. 9211: Tobacco
Regulation Act of 2003. Therefore, the "No
Smoking" sign shall be within the birthing
facility posted in conspicuous areas.
 There shall be a fire suppression system
and/or other firefighting devices placed or
installed in strategic and visible locations in
compliance with the Implementing Rules
and Regulations (IRR) of R.A. 9154: Revised
Fire Code of the Philippines.
 The facility shall have written policies and
procedures on pest and vermin control.
 Ramp

 The Batas Pambansa (BP) 344, also

known as the Accessibility Law,
considers pregnant women as Persons
with Disabilities (PWD). It is, therefore,
important that the ramp if so, required
comply with the standard design
and specifications as prescribed by this
law.

Sample Floor Plan Layout of a Birthing

Center

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 FENG SHUI
DESIGN
PRINCIPLES

Feng Shui design principles

have become increasingly
popular in modern interior
design, as they offer a
unique perspective on
creating balanced and
harmonious spaces.

These principles, originating

from ancient Chinese
philosophy, focus on
optimizing the flow of
energy or "qi" within a space
to promote positive energy,
balance, and well-being.
Feng Shui design principles
emphasize the importance
of proper placement and
arrangement of furniture,
colors, materials, and decor
to create a harmonious and
supportive environment

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Design Principles of Feng Shui in Terms of Designing Feng shui, with its earliest origins in
Architectural Interiors Chinese Taoism, has evolved into a
modern design philosophy. Early
evidence of feng shui practices dates
to before 4000 B.C., including the
placement and orientation of ancient
Chinese cities. Today, feng shui principles are applied to
various design aspects, including office arrangement, home
design, and landscape design.

In modern Feng Shui, two schools take prominence:

The Compass School

The Compass School focuses on the eight mansions or eight
cardinal directions. Each direction has its own Qi energy,
The Chinese words feng and shui translate to wind and which a designer must consider. To do this, they use the Luo
water, both of which represent good health and are Pan. This is a disc that is built around a Feng Shui compass.
associated with good fortune in Chinese culture. Together, There are several concentric circles on the face of this disc,
the philosophy of feng shui is a practice with origins that are each of which has its formula. The Luo Pan specifically refers
thousands of years old. to the Earth's electromagnetic field. Feng Shui practitioners
note that this field holds all matter together.
The philosophy of feng shui aims to auspiciously arrange
cities, buildings, tombs, architecture, design, plants,
furniture, and pieces of any space to create balance with
the natural environment’s energy flow to harness the
energy and establish harmony between the natural world
and the people who inhabit it.

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 Architects often use the
Compass School during the
conceptual design phase.
Season – Spring
Areas – Wealth and family
Interactions – Feeds fire
2. Fire (Huŏ)
Qualities – Brilliant, illuminating, and passion

Form School Shapes – Pointy or triangular

The Form School focuses on the environment’s shape to find Colors – Red
a location that has good Qi energy. Season – Summer
It considers several things. These include the important Areas – Fame
events that relate to a space or structure and the concept of
yin and yang. This school also incorporates the Five Interactions – Produces earth
Elements Theory. It examines the relationship that the
3. Earth (Tǔ)
following elements have to the space:
Qualities – Stable, grounded, and self-caring
Shapes – Square or flat
Colors – Brown, yellow, and orange
Season – Transitions between seasons
1. Wood (Mù)
Areas – Partnerships, knowledge, and health
Qualities – Vitality, expansive, and upward
Interactions – Bears metal
Shapes – Rectangular or columnar
4. Water (Shuǐ)
Colors – Blues and greens

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Qualities – Shifting, flowing, and downward based on your choices. In the destructive cycle, these
elements cancel each other out. Water extinguishes the
Shapes – Curvy and wavy flame, metal slices through wood, and so on. On a
Colors – Black constructive cycle, these elements create a harmonious
environment. Water becomes the source of moisture that
Season – Winter wood, in the form of trees, needs to grow. This wood
Areas – Career becomes the fuel that fire needs—the ashes of the fire fuel
the earth, and so on. Achieving a constructive cycle is the
Interactions – Nourishes wood main aim of the Form School. Most modern Feng Shui
practitioners combine these two schools of thought in their
5. Metal (Jīn)
work. Furthermore, they take the three core principles of
Qualities – Precise, beautiful, and efficient the practice into account.

Shapes – Spherical or circular Three Core Principles of the Practice

Colors – White and metallics Qi Energy

Season – Autumn
Areas – Children and helpful people
Interactions – Collects water
The Five Elements or Forces naturally flow from the Chinese
concept of yin and yang. In feng shui, the goal is to balance
these elements in a space to promote positive energy,
balance, and harmony in life. Each element has associated
qualities, shapes, colors, seasons, areas of life, and
interactions.
The positioning of these elements makes a huge difference.
You could create either a constructive or destructive cycle
As mentioned earlier, this is the energy that flows through
all living things. It’s always flowing, much like water.
However, like water, it’s possible to block the flow of Qi. If
this happens, the blocked Qi can hurt the environment. The
aim is to always ensure Qi flows without obstruction.
The Natural Elements
We covered most of these in explaining the Form School.
However, there are other elements, such as air and space.
Each of these elements has its own set of attributes. These
include color, texture, and shape. Achieving balance
between them creates a flow of positive energy.

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The Bagua
This is a concept that doesn’t relate as closely to
architecture as the other two principles. Instead, it relates
to the placement of the objects that represent your life’s
journey within a space. A Bagua is a chart that maps out
your energy centers as they relate to a space. It’s grid-based,
with each part of the grid representing an aspect of your
life. These include things like power, fame, and family,
among many other aspects. You use the Bagua to achieve a
balance between all of these things, thus allowing you to
lead a happy life.
Translated to English, the word Bagua means eight areas.
These are referred to as trigrams. Each represents a
different circumstance of life and is associated with an
element of force and color.
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The different Bagua areas include:
Zhen (Family and New Beginnings) – Wood and green, blue,
and teal
Xun (Wealth and Abundance) – Wood and purple
Tai Qi (Center and Health) – Earth and brown, orange, and
yellow
Qian (Helpful People and Travel) – Metal and gray
Dui (Children and Completion) – Metal and white
Gen (Knowledge and Self-Cultivation) – Earth and dark blue
Li (Fame and Reputation) – Fire and red
Kan (Career and Life Path) – Water and black
Kun (Love and Relationships) – Earth and pink
In feng shui, the Bagua creates a map of an energy grid that
contains eight of the trigrams or elements. It’s sometimes
represented as an octagonal pie with one element per
eighth-sized slice and other times as a square-shaped grid
containing one section for each trigram. Surrounded by the
elements of your life, you are located at the center of the
square or octagonal Bagua, where each trigram comes
together.
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However, the Bagua is laid out, it is intended to be scaled
and laid over the top of the space you’re designing –
whether that be a desk, a bedroom, an office, a hallway, an
entire home, a building, or a city. Each section of a space
can then be arranged and designed with its respective
trigram in mind.
Basic Principles of Feng Shui
In ancient Chinese civilization, it was used to orient
significant buildings in a specific manner to maximize the
flow of sheng chi.
However, historians suggest that it was not just limited to
important structures and that similar ideas were used in
making common dwellings and public places as well.
Leaning against Mountains and Facing Waters
One of the key things about feng shui is to construct
buildings in such a way that its back is against the mountains
and the front is towards the water.
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The ancient capital city, Xi’an, for example, was surrounded
by nine mighty mountains and eight rivers in China. As a
matter of fact, for this reason, it was one of the most
auspicious cities of its time and 13 dynasties put it as their
capital city.
Symmetry
Feng shui architecture stresses heavily on symmetry. Hence,
ancient Chinese cities were constructed carefully with
symmetry in mind.
One of the most famous examples of that is China’s
Forbidden City which is built in a bilaterally symmetrical
fashion. At the core of its design is a north-south axis line
around which the entire palace is built.
Curves
Curves also play an important role in feng shui architecture.
It symbolizes vitality and that’s why you can observe curves
in almost all Chinese architecture - bridges have arches,
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corridors are winding, and roofs have curves around the
edges.
The mausoleum complex of the Qing Dynasty has small
structures in front of large ones - often, south-north
buildings constructed at the front or back of east-west
buildings - to emulate some sort of a curve.
Feng Shui Advice for Some Common Rooms
Home Office
The commanding position of any room is where it’s the
farthest from the entry point and it’s not in line with it.
Preferably, it should be surrounded by strong walls so that it
can be a pocket of positive energy.
Bathroom
Keep the bathroom doors closed when not in use and keep
the toilet seat down. Otherwise, the bathroom will act as
the sink for the flow of good energy and will sink it out of
the house.
In ancient China, water was a symbol of wealth and
prosperity, and if you keep your bathroom open all the time,
then this imaginary flow of water (positive energy) will drain
through it.
‘
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Baby’s Room
If you have a baby then principles of feng shui can help keep
your baby healthy and happy. Place the cradle in a
commanding position, i.e., farthest from the door and not in
line with it. Keep it away from electronics because
electromagnetic waves can hamper the positive energy from
getting to your child.
Bedroom
The bedroom is such a key part of anyone’s house that we
decided to make a separate section about how you can
design your bedroom to be more in line with feng shui. Here
are some tips and tricks to keep in mind when altering your
bedroom.
The right bed
For being in harmony with your surroundings and getting
plenty of good energy while sleeping, you will have to, first,
get the right bed for yourself.
The bed should have a solid headboard and a good-quality
mattress. Additionally, the bed should have ample frame
height and no storage underneath. It is also preferable to
get a bed with no sharp corners.
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The right placement of the bed
First, place your bed in the commanding position of the
room. And make sure that it’s leaning against strong walls to
make a pocket of sheng chi.
Keep the bed away from walls that have electronics on
them. Electromagnetic fields repel good energy, so, keep
TVs and other electronics on the opposite side of your bed
rather than on the sides.
Preferably, if possible, orient the bed in line with your lucky
direction. Of course, you will have to experiment and try out
different directions for that to happen.
But keep in mind not to compromise on the commanding
position or anything else while orienting it in the right
direction because it’s more of a bonus than a must.
Maintaining the surroundings of your bed
Balance the space around your bed correctly. That implies
that you can’t have just one nightstand beside your bed -
you need at least two. They don’t have to be identical or
even similar.
You can be creative and try different kinds of nightstands
but try to keep a healthy balance in the area surrounding
your bed.
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More importantly, don’t keep objects with sharp edges and
corners, that point at you, around your bed. Otherwise,
attacking energy or sha chi will be focused on you.
If you have a table clock or a lamp on your nightstand, make
sure that is a rounded piece. And the same goes for the foot
table.
Feng Shui Remedies
Certain special objects can help you achieve better feng
shui. These objects are called feng shui remedies or cures.
You can use these objects to aid the flow of positive energy
in your house.
Mirrors
Mirrors are the most helpful objects in achieving feng shui.
They can activate, expand, circulate, and deflect energy.
The right placement of mirrors around your house can result
in a significantly better flow of sheng chi. Use mirrors to
spread more natural light and reflect nature in your home
for the best results.
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Crystals These natural elements enhance the positive energy and
help it to spread in more remote locations of your abode.
Crystals are amazing at modulating energy and hence, help
you control it. Use it to eradicate pockets of si chi in the
house by refracting more sunlight and positive energy.
Water
Chinese people consider water as a harbinger of wealth and
prosperity. So, according to feng shui, if you can incorporate
elements of running water in your house, it’s bound to
generate more positive energy.
You can try fountains and other waterwork elements to
enhance the tranquility and serenity in your dwelling.
Symbols
Symbolic objects like the Buddha, lucky bamboo, dragon
statues, and talismans represent sheng chi.
You don’t have to put a lot of gaudy items in your house.
Remember, a free and open house is always better for feng
shui. But you can use colors, art pieces, and a few symbolic
objects to enhance the sheng chi.
Natural objects
Try to place potted plants and other forms of greenery in
your house. But remember not to compromise on having a
clutter-free environment in that endeavor. Apart from
greenery, you can also plant elements of nature in your
house in the form of aquariums.

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References
Alane, D. a., & Recidoro, Z. D. (n.d.). Operations Guidelines, Women's Health, and Safe Motherhood Project.

Archistar Academy. (2018). The Basic Principles of Feng Shui (And Four Buildings That Use Feng Shui Design Principles). Archistar
Academy, 1-50.

DOH. (2004). Guidelines in the Planning and Design of a Hospital and Other Health Facilities.

Fajardo, M. B. (n.d.). Planning and Designers Handbook.

Gaumond, A. (2023). Essential Feng Shui Principles & Foundational Concepts: Your Complete Guide. Petal Republic, 1-23.

Giuroiu, A. (2023). Feng Shui Architecture 101 – Rules & Tips You Need to Know. Homesthetics, 1-15.

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