Birth Center Week 2024 Events
Looking to nourish your heart, mind, and soul?
Birth Center Week offers an abundance of ways for you to celebrate and elevate the safety, love, and liberation of community birth centers!
Register now for #BCW24’s fabulous offerings!
Sunday Support Circle: Birth Workers & Student Debt
Monday, September 15th at 12pm ET/11 am CT/9 am PT (90 min)
Are you interested in becoming a midwife or working in perinatal health, but worried about taking on too much debt? Are you currently a student in the midwifery or perinatal health field facing financial insecurity around debt? If your answer is yes to either of these questions, then grab your coffee or tea and join in for a chat with Bri Franklin, debt constraint prevention expert, to learn more about predatory lending and how to avoid it, and how debt overwhelm negatively impacts the diversity and quality of perinatal workforce and perinatal health overall. Let's defeat perinatal "debt-sparity"!
This event will be an IG Livestream! Follow BCE on IG to receive a day-of notification!
So You Want to Start a Birth Center?
Monday, September 16th at 2pm ET/1 pm CT/11 am PT
A workshop led by Tamara Taitt & Rebecca Polson of Kinfolk Consulting for Black, Indigenous aspiring and developing birth center leaders of color on how to start building the best birth center for you and your community.
Birth Center Birth Stories – Premiering Each Night!
Monday 9/16 | Tuesday, 9/17 | Wednesday, 9/18 | Thursday 9/19 | Friday 9/20at approximately 6pm ET/5pm CT/3pm PT each evening
Are you a birthing person – or know someone who is – wondering what it’s like to birth with a birth center? Are you a funder or donor, public health advocate, or community leader eager to hear directly from birthing people of color about their birthing experiences with birth centers in the BCE network?
Then please join us for the premier of our brand new birth center birth stories videos. Hear the stories of birthing people in San Diego, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Juan, and Dallas. We’ll be debuting one a day at 6 pm ET starting Monday, September 16.
To get your notification for each premier, follow BCE on social media.
Birth Centers are Public Health!
Tuesday, September 17th at 9am ET / 8am CT / 6am PT
Tune in for a special edition of the America Dissected podcast with public health leader Dr. Abdul El-Sayed* and BCE CEO & MPH Leseliey Welch to learn why birth centers are a crucial public health solution, and how public health and birth center leaders are collaborating to grow community birth infrastructure across the country.
*Dr. Sayed is Wayne County (MI) Public Health Director; Host, America Dissected podcast; and author of Healing Politics & Medicare for All
Podcast link will go live on September 17th!
Step Up Together: Collaborating to Center Safety in Community Birth
Tuesday, September 17th at 2pm ET / 1 pm CT / 11 am PT
Birth centers around the country are stepping up their collaborations with transfer hospitals and EMS services, working across teams to ensure that transfers are smooth, patients are safe, and everyone is treated with respect. Learn about new tools available to support interdisciplinary emergency drills that begin in the birth center, travel by ambulance, and conclude at the hospital. We'll review the results of a recent national Step Up TogetherTM Action Collaborative and hear from Birth Detroit and Henry Ford Hospital about their interdisciplinary safety planning for Detroit's first community birth center.
How Did You Get There? Experiences of Latine Midwives in the US
Wednesday, September 18 at 12:00pm ET / 11:00am CT / 9:00am PT
Are you a person who speaks Spanish as your first language and dreams of being a midwife in a birth center? Are you curious about the paths of other Latine midwives in the US? Join the stories of Latine midwives from diverse communities across the country. This session is designed to inspire and inform!
Confirmed Presenters:
Zulgeil Ruiz Gines, Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery
Lina Garcia, Luna y Tierra Birth Center, El Paso, Texas
Vanessa Calderi, MAM Center, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Juanita Ahuehuetzin Montoya, recently graduated midwife, Illinois
Save the date and check back for registration details.
Se proporciona interpretación en español para todas las sesiones.
Closed caption provided for all BCW sessions.
How Did You Get There? Wisdom from Indigenous Birth Center Leaders
Co-sponsored with Indigenous Birth
Wednesday, September 18 at 2:00 pm ET / 1:00pm pm CT / 11:00am PT
Are you an Indigenous person dreaming of leading a birth center? Curious about the pathways of Indigenous birth center leaders? Join in for storytelling from Indigenous birth center leaders in diverse communities across the country. This session is designed to inspire and inform!
Moderator: Marinah V. Farrell, Indigenous Birth
Panelists
Glenna Belin Marcus, Breath of My Heart, Espanola, New Mexico
Marianna Holland, New Phase of the Birth Nest, Glendale, AZ
Tara Lawal, Rainier Valley, Seattle, Washington
Vanessa Calderi, Centro MAM, San Juan, PR
Terah Lara, Foothills Midwifery, Enumclaw, Washington
Register for the event here.
Se proporciona interpretación en español para todas las sesiones. Closed caption provided for all BCW sessions.
Birth Centers Belong to Us: Policies to Grow Birth Centers in Our Communities
Co-Sponsored with Black Mamas Matter Alliance
Thursday, September 19th at 2pm ET / 1 pm CT / 11 am PT
Are you ready to raise your voice for policies to support birth centers to thrive in our communities?
Are you eager to learn about exciting and successful efforts to make policy change led by and accountable to our communities?
If you're a yes, please join us for this action oriented policy session!
Register for this event here!
What does it mean to Birth with Justice?
Co-Sponsored with Southern Birth Justice Network
Friday, September 20th at 2pm ET / 1 pm CT / 11 am PT
The words “Birth Justice” resonate in the hearts and minds of millions. But the story of how birth justice was born may be less widely known. Join us as Dr. Keisha Goode ( National Association of Certified Professional Midwives, NACPM; State University of New York (SUNY), interviews Jamarah Amani ( Southern Birth Justice Network; National Black Midwives Alliance) about the origins of birth justice and its roots in Black midwifery.
Register for this event here!