Project Launch: 3-6-23

The Birthing Place (TBP)  is a team of experienced, local NYC birthing professionals providing family-centered, safe, cost-effective, evidence-based care for birthing people in marginalized communities. Our team is rooted in the community and has provided more than 50 classes and served over 800 families & individuals.  In 2022, TBP launched The Womb Bus, a mobile wellness outreach van, operating as a Perinatal Safe Spot offering social support and education (i.e. fertility counseling, nutrition in the childbearing year, perinatal education). Womb Bus reaches– and has become a fixture in Bronx neighborhoods with the worst perinatal mortality and morbidity statistics in the country and city. TBP/Womb Bus brings comprehensive maternal and infant care where it is needed most, improving BIPOC perinatal experiences to be more dignified, safe, and life-affirming. 

The Birthing Place (TBP) makes meaningful investments along a person’s pregnancy journey, from preconception to postpartum, yielding better health and birth outcomes for Bronx families. TBP builds a sustainable, inclusive ecosystem for an equitable and beautiful future we are helping to create. The wider NYC birth community, including doula colleagues and mentees, and the families we serve, support our work by raising awareness and engaging in outreach activities to obtain widespread buy-in for our bigger vision. We are building a collaborative care model that centers families during their entire reproductive lifespan. This will be by midwives, doulas and community care professionals who bring cultural competence and multilingual capacity, so more New Yorkers gain access to evidence-based and deeply beneficial wrap-around care. 

With support from World Connect, TBP will continue to develop specialized classes, supplemental to the standard childbirth education. This year-long project will include  five 90-min long classes each quarter, totaling twenty, with 10-15 participants anticipated in each session.  Offered in English and Spanish, these specialized classes will equip community members with the knowledge and tools to advocate for themselves during pregnancy, understand best practices for birth & labor, and prepare for a potential cesarean birth and labor induction. Our proposed specialized curriculum will include: (1) “Hospital Birthing & Advocacy,” covering the hospital environment, the importance of advocacy and education, what informed consent is, and more; (2) “Comfort & Coping Strategies for Labor,” covering the body/mind connection, what to bring from home, the role of birth partners and doulas, and more; (3) “Preparing for a Cesarean Birth,” covering c-section basics, questions to ask the health care provider, post-op recovery, bonding with baby, and more; (4) “Labor Induction,” covering the difference between medical and elective inductions, what the Bishop score is, "natural" induction methods, and more; and (5) “The Epidural,” covering how an epidural works, benefits & risks, myths & facts, and more.

Accessible and nuanced education will prove TBP Education objectives effective - supporting participants to increase knowledge, build confidence, empower advocacy skills, engage in informed decision making, and promote better birth experiences.