Neighborhood Birth Center

Our Vision

Our vision is that birth experiences and outcomes improve for all through the integration of a freestanding birthing center in Boston. We believe that people living in and around Boston should have access to a full range of pregnancy care and birthing options. Our mission is to offer comprehensive midwifery care throughout pregnancy, labor, birth and the postpartum period by integrating an independent freestanding birth center in Boston’s healthcare and community landscape. Birth is a sacred process, and when the pregnant person is centered, the experience has the power to transform and heal individuals, families, and communities. 

Our work is guided by the belief that the world we want to live in – from a healthy family to a healthy planet – requires the reimagination of healthcare and the equitable redistribution of capital. To birth a just and bright future, and change course on maternal health, birth centers, especially those led by people of color, must be invested in at scale. Neighborhood Birth Center is about people at the margins redesigning healthcare in ways that improve experiences and outcomes for all. 

With only one other birth center in the state of MA, there is a need for community birth infrastructure. We are working hard to open in 2023. (100% of donations at this time go to the purchase and renovation of space.)

Why does Boston need a birth center?

Massachusetts ranks 32nd in the country on midwifery integration and lags significantly behind other states in access to freestanding birth centers. Of the 400 birth centers in the US, there is 1 in Massachusetts. Right now, 99% of births in MA happen in the hospital, even though most could happen safely outside the hospital with midwives. Not to mention that a shift of just 10% of births from hospitals to birth centers would save $1.9 billion annually. Out-of-hospital options in eastern MA are limited unless people can afford the several thousand dollar price tag and have the space and support for homebirth. Neighborhood Birth Center will create a third option for pregnant people to receive care and give birth in a safe, sanctuary-like space, with highly trained midwives, whose care is covered by insurance. The presence of a birth center in Boston will improve outcomes and experiences and advance racial equity in birth and other health measures.  

Birth center care results in:

• Fewer infant emergency department visits and hospitalizations
• Lower rates of c-section
• Higher rates of spontaneous vaginal delivery
• Lower rates of preterm birth
• Lower rates of babies born low birth weight
• Higher rates of initiated and sustained breast/chestfeeding

Our progress!

A volunteer project since 2015, we now have a rockstar board of directors, 3 staff, and a team of consulting midwives designing everything from physical space to policy to organizational culture with a commitment to healing the past and creating a new, sustainable, model of care for the Greater Boston community.  

LOCATION: We are conspiring with social justice movement leaders on co-ownership of a shared space, creating a healing sanctuary for community, designed by MASSDesign Group and anchored by Neighborhood Birth Center. We are exploring real estate options and hope to acquire real estate in the summer of 2022. We are working with are hospitals on partnership agreements and will be located less than 10 minutes away for ease of transfer when necessary.

PLANNING: Most birth centers are for-profit entities, started by midwives, using their own personal savings or lines of credit. At Neighborhood Birth Center, we have committed to birthing a nonprofit model, allowing us to maintain a people-focused mission and share power with community. In doing so, we are steadfast in our commitment to community engagement and weaving a web of believers around this vision. We are integrating lessons from other birth centers and from social movement into the design of our business model and clinical policies to ensure we are centering the needs. and wildest dreams, of people most often left out of the design of health care.  In addition to real estate development, fundraising, and business planning, we see shifting the narrative and building community as a fundamental piece of our sustainable success. We are intentionally building community around the midwifery and birth center models of care by hosting and participating in events from birth story slams, to house parties, to church gatherings, to social media conversations.

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