Two women holding a newborn baby, with a colorful illustrated background of pink, purple, and red swirls and flowers, smiling at the camera.

EVENTS

BIRTH CENTER WEEK 2025

Event poster for a birth anniversary celebration on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at ABC Birth Institute featuring a speaker in a pink blazer and yellow flowers in the foreground, with text indicating a keynote titled 'Beloved Birth 50 By 50' and a live event on BCW 'Eve'.

Beloved Birth 50 By 50 Keynote @ 2025 AABC Birth Institute 

Live in person! Saturday, September 13

On Saturday, September 13, the eve of BCW25, BCE Co-Founder and CEO Leseliey Welch will give the keynote speech at the American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) gathering in Portland, Oregon. Leseliey will ring in Birth Center Week 2025 with a celebration of Beloved Birth 50 By 50, BCE’s invitation to everyone, everywhere, to be part of realizing one audacious goal: By 2050, 50% of babies in the US will come into the world with the care of midwives. 

The AABC Birth Institute brings together over 250 birth advocates, including midwives, physicians, nurses, doulas, and administrators, for learning and networking.

Announcement for a midwife career event on Tuesday, September 16th, with a colorful background of yellow daisies and a gradient pink, purple, and orange backdrop. The event time is 2:00-3:30 Eastern Time, with additional times in other time zones.

Calling All Student Midwives! Careers In Birth Centers

Tuesday, September 16, 2-3:30 ET/1-2:30 CT/Noon-1 MT/11-2:30 PT

Are you a student midwife thinking about your future? Are you wondering what a birth center career pathway would be like? This workshop is for you! Please join us for this interactive workshop where midwifery educators, birth center leaders, and midwifery students will share information and experience about what it means to prepare for, transition into, and work as a birth center based midwife. 

Confirmed Speakers:

  • Darian Thomas (she/her), Student Midwife Birth Detroit (Detroit MI)

  • Lisa Kane Low (she/her), PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN or Ruth Zeilinksi (she/her), Ph.D., CNM, RN, FACNM, FAAN, University of Michigan School of Nursing (Ann Arbor, MI)

  • Nikkia Grayson (she/her), DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, CHOICES Center for Reproductive Health (Memphis, TN)

  • Sara Ceiba Flores (they/them), CNM, ReClaim Midwifery & Healing Services (Oakland, CA)

Facilitator:

  • Gianna Fay (she/her), CNM, WHNP-BC, Midwifery Innovation Director, Birth Center Equity

An infographic with a pink and orange gradient background, featuring a branch with red berries and green leaves at the top right. It displays a calendar date for Wednesday, September 17, with event details about lessons from state-level birth justice policy campaigns scheduled at various times across different time zones.

What Works for Us? Lessons from State-Level Birth Justice Policy Campaigns

Wednesday, September 17, 2-3:30 ET/1-2:30 CT/Noon-1 MT/11-2:30 PT

With strong birth center leadership, birth justice policy packages are emerging in many states. Join us for this BCE Network-led panel where we will explore what it looks like to design state policy around what is truly needed to build Black-owned birth centers; and what lessons we can learn from recent successes and recent setbacks, as well as emerging campaigns.

Confirmed Speakers: 

  • Crystal Charley (she/her), MBA, CD (SMC), Melanin and Maternal Wellness (Trenton, NJ)

  • Jeanine Valrie-Logan (she/her), MPH, CLS, Chicago Southside Birth Center (Chicago, IL)

  • Myla Flores (she/her), The Birthing Place (Bronx, NY)

  • Nashira Baril (she/her), MPH, Neighborhood Birth Center (Boston, MA)

  • Shané Darby (she/her), Black Mothers in Power (Wilmington, DC)

Event announcement for September 18th about birth centers and birth justice, featuring a purple morning glory flower and a gradient background with sparkles.

Birth Centers Advancing Birth Justice & Community Based Care

Birth Justice Institute Webinar

Thursday, September 18th, 6-7 ET/5-6 CT/4-5 MT/3-4 PT

BCE Co-Founder and CEO Leseliey Welch will be the speaker for this Birth Justice Institute webinar. She will share how birth centers are essential to advancing birth justice in communities and discuss why making them more accessible is critical.

This session offers space for connection, learning, and collective care, equipping equity-focused birth workers, advocates, and community leaders with tools, strategies, and ancestral knowledge to improve maternal and infant health.

Event poster with pink gradient background and orange flowers at the bottom. It shows the date Friday, September 19, with the title 'Lessons from the South: Midwives & Birth Centers Leading In Times of Crisis.' The event times are listed for multiple time zones.

Lessons from the South: Midwives & Birth Centers Leading In Times of Crisis 

Friday, September 19, 2-3:30 ET/1-2:30 CT/Noon MT/11 am PT

Join us to hear and learn from powerful birth justice leaders in the South, a region so crucial in the history of racial justice and midwifery, and so fierce in the face of attacks on reproductive justice that are concentrated in the region.

Confirmed Speakers:

  • Dr. Yashica Robinson (she/her), The Alabama Birth Center (Huntsville, AL)

  • Tina Braimah (she/her), CNM, Aya Birth and Community Wellness (Durham, NC)

  • Jamarah Amani (she/her), LM, Southern Birth Justice Network (Miami Beach, FL)

  • Tamara Taitt (she/her), MS, LMFT, LM, Atlanta Birth Center (Atlanta, GA)

Eventos en Español

Círculo de Apoyo Mutuo

Lunes, 15 de septiembre, 2:00–3:30 ET / 1:00–2:30 CT / 12:00–1:30 MT / 11:00–12:30 PT

Este círculo de apoyo mutuo (por Zoom) es un espacio solidario para parteras y trabajadoras de parto de comunidades “latinas” en Estados Unidos, quienes en estos tiempos se enfrentan a grandes retos: desde la falta de recursos y apoyo, y la dura realidad anti-migrante que impacta nuestro trabajo y nuestras comunidades. Aún así sabemos que también tenemos mucha fuerza y sabiduría colectiva. Será una sesión informal, en español, para compartir experiencias, emociones, saberes y consejos, y para recordarnos que no estamos solas en este camino.

Facilitadoras:

  • Lina Garcia, Luna y Tierra Birth Center (El Paso, Texas)

  • Julie Quiroz, Birth Center Equity

Participante de recurso:

  • Jennifer Ibañez Whitlock, Centro Nacional de Derecho Migratorio