In 1982 our practice began with one midwife at Birth Place, Western Pennsylvania's first freestanding birth center, where over one hundred babies were born. An independent, not-for-profit organization Birth Place was forced to close due to the malpractice insurance crisis of 1986. Seeking ways to continue the practice, the board sold Birth Place to The Western Pennsylvania Hospital in 1987. West Penn employed the midwives, and opened a new freestanding birth center, BirthPlace. At BirthPlace the practice grew to six midwives and more than 200 births per year.
In 1997 the midwives relocated the practice across the river to Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) which constructed a new, larger freestanding birth center, The Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health. Birth numbers again increased, but AGH announced that it would be closing the center and firing the midwives in March 2000.
On the day of the announcement, 40 midwifery clients picketed hospital headquarters, and two other demonstrations quickly followed in subsequent days. The client protest succeeded in moving the hospital to keep the birth center open for an additional four months. The extra time allowed the midwives and clients to organize a new non-profit organization, The Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health—to maintain the midwifery practice and open a new freestanding birth. Clients donated initial operating funds, and the midwives worked without salary for six months to allow the organization to become financially viable. In November 2000, the organization began offering full-scope midwifery care out of its own office, providing births at AGH and at home. An active client group, “WithMidwife,” continues to support the midwives and the center.
As of October 2002 plans for a new birth center were still moving forward. The organization has identified a building, and has raised more than $100,000 for its purchase and renovation, primarily from clients. The organization hopes to open the birth center by the end of 2002.
Throughout this long history, there has been astonishing continuity within the practice. Lori Albright, RN, who was the mother of the first baby boy born at the first birth center, is now Lori Albright, CNM, a staff nurse-midwife. The mother of the first baby born at the first birth center is now on the birth center’s board of directors.
Uniqueness is this practice's hallmark. Through most of its 20 years, the midwives have offered the only safe out-of-hospital birth option in Southwestern PA. From 1994-1996 the midwives designed and ran a program funded by Healthy Start wherein they provided all the prenatal, gynecologic and birthing care for the women in the Allegheny County Jail. The midwives instituted changes at the jail such as prenatal rhogam, AZT for HIV+ pregnant women, and methadone for pregnant women addicted to heroin. In 1999, a grant from the March of Dimes allowed the midwives to provide home births for uninsured women and women on public assistance.
The center has just been awarded a major grant from the Maurice Falk Medical Fund for its new “Freetime Fridays” program, which will provide free, walk-in reproductive health services to vulnerable women.
Almost every midwife in Southwestern Pennsylvania has had a part of her education with the midwives of this practice. The practice has primarily participated as preceptors for the CNEP and University of Pennsylvania Midwifery programs. Additionally the midwives serve as clinical preceptors for the Forbes Regional Hospital Family Practice Residency Program and for third year medical students form MCP/Hahnemann.
The extreme client dedication, more than anything else, demonstrates how the midwives must put the heart of midwifery into practice.
