WomenCare, Inc. FamilyCare Health Center was founded in 1985 as a freestanding birth center serving rural women in Putnam County , West Virginia .  The birth center grew into a Federally Qualified Health Center in 2001. The center has listened to what women told them they needed: gynecologic and family planning care, family planning care, family medical care, pediatric care, dental care with prescription medications, mental health care and care for chronic illness.  The birth center is still the heart of an organization that employs over 100 people, has a $5 million operating budget and provides care to 13,000 patients a year, may whom might not have access to care or choices otherwise.  In a state that has become infamous for having the highest cesarean rate in the country, the FamilyCare midwifery practice continues to offer women their best opportunity for a vaginal birth and provides gold standard care for women across the life span.  It now provides the only free-standing birth center in the state.

FamilyCare has two full-scope primary care sites, two sites for OB/GYN only and the WomenCare Birth Center .  They have contracted with two other health centers to provide prenatal care in outlying communities so that rural women do not have to travel so far to receive services.  The OB/GYN physicians provide gynecologic procedures and surgery at a minimal charge for women who are uninsured.  In holding the midwifery philosophy as the organization's core standard of care, they provide access to all care regardless of the ability to pay.  In their organization, women will be cared for by a CNM unless they are high risk or they request a physician.

Currently, FamilyCare has six nurse-midwives (all ACNM members) providing well woman care, prenatal care, and birth services at the BirthCenter or the tertiary hospital.  All the midwives have been active in local ACNM activities and offices over the years.  The CEO is a nurse-midwife who champions the core values of midwifery practice and philosophy throughout the organization and in the community at large.  Midwifery now has a seat at the table and a voice that has to be heard at the tertiary center in the state and in the legislative hearings.

FamilyCare is actively involved in the education of health professional students.  The midwives have served as clinical faculty for CNEP for over ten years and have CNEP graduates as employees.  They have also had nurse-midwifery students from several other programs throughout the years.  The health centers will soon serve as clinical sites for a new Pharmacology school in the area.

Knowing that half of the women in this country will succumb to heart disease, they are about to launch a new program, WISEWOMAN, a CDC funded program that assists women without insurance gain access to screening and lifestyle interventions that can reduce their risk for heart disease and other chronic diseases, further expanding their ability to be "with women, for a lifetime."

As they grew from a practice serving only women to a full-scope primary care practice, their goal was to never lose sight of the midwifery model of care. They have tried to instill the midwifery model into traditional primary care services, and have developed an organization that is unique- a blend of midwifery, private medical practice, and community health.  Midwifery is not only their heart, it's their foundation.