#39 Opening a Midwife-Owned Birth Center with Kirsten Kowalski-Lane, CNM, CPM

Join us as we talk with Kirsten Kowalski-Lane, CNM, CPM about her journey from birth doula to homebirth midwife to hospital midwife to birth center midwife...and how she managed to co-found and co-own the first midwife-owned birth center in Massachusetts.  

The American Association of Birth Centers defines a birth center as a home-like setting where care providers, usually midwives, provide family-centered care to healthy pregnant women. Most birth centers are located separately from hospitals, while a few are physically inside hospital buildings. In-hospital birth centers must meet certain standards for independence and must be separate from the Labor and Delivery unit in order to be considered true birth centers.
In the U.S., 98.8% of births take place in hospital labor and delivery units, with physicians attending 86% of these births. In contrast, 0.3% of births take place in birth centers, where nurse-midwives and midwives provide most of the care. Among women who give birth in hospitals, approximately 85% are considered low-risk.

Recorded Wednesday, November 18, 2020.

To learn more about this fantastic option for birthing, please visit https://www.sevensistersmidwifery.com