Posted on August 25, 2025
President, American Association of Birth Centers (AABC)
As a midwife, an aunt, and a community advocate, I’ve spent over two decades walking alongside birthing people through their most intimate, powerful moments. I've seen firsthand how and where someone gives birth can shape their entire story—not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and culturally.
Right now, in too many places across New Jersey, the only option is a hospital. Families often don’t have access to birth centers, even if they are low-risk, healthy, and want a different experience. We must be clear: If there is only one option, then there is no real choice.
Let's make children and their
families the center of the
2025 Election Campaign.
Why Birth Centers Matter
Birth centers are not a luxury. They are an evidence-based, cost-effective, and community-centered model of care that has been proven to:
- Reduce unnecessary interventions
- Lower rates of cesarean sections
- Improve maternal and infant outcomes
- Center cultural respect and patient autonomy
Birth centers are staffed by midwives and care teams who provide high-touch, low-intervention support. They care for people who are healthy and low-risk, and desire a more personalized birth experience. The centers offer services that matter deeply to families, such as water birth, continuity of care, and provider-to-patient ratios that allow for trust, education, and support. They also meet people where they are, with a deep respect for spiritual and culturally-rooted traditions, family structures, and lived experiences.
Addressing Birth Trauma with Compassionate Care
Far too many birthing people in New Jersey walk away from their births feeling unheard, dismissed, or even harmed. Birth trauma is real, and it’s a public health issue especially among Black and Brown families who face bias, neglect, or coercion in traditional hospital settings.
Birth centers provide a trauma-informed approach that centers on:
- Continuity of care: the same team before, during, and after birth
- Informed consent: making sure birthing people are active participants in their care
- Emotional and physical safety: with time, space, and personalized support
- Non-clinical comforts: like water birth, mobility, and uninterrupted bonding
When families feel respected and cared for, they are more likely to heal fully, bond deeply, and return to their communities stronger and more empowered.
A Solution to New Jersey's Maternal Health Crisis
New Jersey has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country; and the statistics are even more devastating for Black mothers, who are seven times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than their white counterparts.
We cannot afford to ignore these outcomes. We cannot keep pouring money into a system that was never built for all of us. We must fund, license, and support birth centers across New Jersey— especially in the neighborhoods where outcomes are worst, and where community-rooted, culturally responsive care is most needed.
Reclaiming Power and Choice
At the heart of midwifery care and birth centers is a simple truth: Birth belongs to the birthing person. When families are educated about their options and supported in their choices, they are empowered and healthier.
We need policies that:
- Expand access to birth center care statewide.
- Protect Medicaid and insurance coverage for birth center services.
- Invest in Black- and Brown-led midwifery care models.
- Build new birth centers in underserved areas, including South Jersey, rural communities, and urban perinatal health deserts.
- Ensure midwifery autonomy by establishing a state Board of Midwifery.
To New Jersey’s Next Governor: Make Birth Centers Part of the Plan
We urge every gubernatorial candidate to include birth centers and midwifery-led care in their maternal health platform. If you are serious about saving the lives of birthing people in New Jersey, especially Black and Brown lives, then birth centers must be a part of your vision.
Let’s give families real options. Let’s shift from fear to trust. Let’s fund models that work.
Because birth should be safe. Birth should be sacred. Birth should be ours.
