American Association of Birth Centers

02/26/2026

Meet the Team: Ericka Cameron, AABC Foundation
It's time to meet another member of the team here who has been making great things happen since her first day here. She's full of creative ideas and so much heart for development work. Meet one of the faces behind this year's Spring It On, The AABC Foundation Gala, and so much more - Ericka Cameron!
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Hi friends! I'm Ericka Cameron (she/her), the Development Coordinator at AABC Foundation, which means I work closely with our board to ensure that everything we do reflects the Foundation's mission.

I'll be celebrating my one-year anniversary with AABC Foundation in March, and I'm so grateful to be a part of this incredible community working to make midwife-led birth center care accessible to all.

When I'm not working, you can usually find me doing homework (if all goes well, I'll be Dr. Cameron in 2.5 years), volunteering with my local animal rescue, or curled up on the coach with my husband reading (and trying to solve) an Agatha Christie novel under the judgmental gaze of our 4 cats.
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02/26/2026

Congratulations to the Clarksville Midwifery and Birth Center team on officially being a licensed Tennessee birth center! 🥳

Jenny and Christy have poured so much love into their birth center, and it's beautiful to see their dreams coming to fruition.

✨ We Are Officially a Tennessee Licensed Birth Center! ✨

After years of planning, praying, building, revising, inspections, and perseverance — we are overjoyed to announce that Clarksville Birth Center is now officially licensed by the State of Tennessee.

And that means…

💛 We are now accepting birth center clients! 💛

This milestone represents countless hours of collaboration, construction, compliance, and commitment to creating a safe, beautiful, fully licensed space for families in our community.

Clarksville Birth Center is:
✔️ State licensed
✔️ Midwife-led
✔️ Designed for low-risk families
✔️ Focused on evidence-based, respectful care
✔️ Built with our community in mind

We are deeply grateful to every family who has trusted us, every contractor and colleague who stood beside us, and every person who believed this was possible.

If you are interested in birth center care for your upcoming due date, we would love to connect with you.

📩 Email us at clarksvillemidwifery@gmail.com

📍 Serving Clarksville, TN and surrounding communities

This is more than an opening — it’s the beginning of a new chapter for birth in our region.

We cannot wait to welcome you.

— Clarksville Midwifery & Clarksville Birth Center 🤍

02/20/2026

Sending an enormous congratulations to our friends at The Midwife Center on their 10,000th birth!!🥳
What an unbelievable milestone. Your team has touched so many lives over the years, including ours here at AABC along with all of the families you serve.

Help The Midwife Center prepare for their next 10,000 births with a small donation!

02/18/2026

Longtime AABC member Mary Sommers went to Washington D.C for an amazing presentation on her Federally Qualified Health Center's birth center model 👏

She shares that she presented on PCC's innovative Birth Center Care model, also promoting the integration of doulas, Certified Professional Midwives, and birth centers in a collaborative care model with Nurse Midwives, Family physicians and OBs within FQHCs.
"Expanding the model, expanding access to models that work!"

Way to go, Mary!

02/16/2026

Member Spotlight: BSD Birthing Center ✨️

BSD Birthing Center is a freestanding birth center located 1 hour outside of New York City in Rockland County. They have 3 beautiful birthing suites, and the midwives have privileges at the hospital across the street as well to transfer care when needed, or for those families that risk out of the birthing center during pregnancy.

For the last few years they have worked tirelessly on achieving NYS licensure as the first midwifery-led birth center in the state to do so. The team offers care prenatal care, attend births in birth center, home, and hospital settings, provide annual visits, GYN visits, postpartum and newborn care.

BSD Birthing Center became the first midwifery-led birth center in NYS to become licensed by the DOH in Sept 2025 and achieved CABC reaccreditation in the same month! In 2025, they had 260 births with amazing statistics.

Congratulations on an amazing year and a beautiful birth center, BSD!

02/11/2026

02/10/2026

We'd like to take some time for you to get to know our team more personally here at AABC, and we're starting strong with the face behind so many of your daily questions and calls!

Meet the Team: Lisa Recke 🎊
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I've been part of the AABC team since 2007, serving as office manager and bookkeeper from our Pennsylvania location. My current role is managing daily financial transactions for both AABC and the Foundation, while also supporting our team. Whenever you have a question, call AABC and I will be happy to assist you!

On the personal side, I've been married for 30 years and am proud of two adult children, a son and a daughter. I have two chihuahuas that I rescued 11 years ago, who keep life interesting!

I'm part of a local litter cleaning crew, working to keep our roadways and waterways clean for everyone to enjoy. I also volunteer at one of the nation's largest grass volleyball tournaments and work hard to bring this exciting event to life each year.

Because it is currently winter, on the weekends, I enjoy making breakfast, painting, and working on puzzles. I am a thrift store shopper and enjoy finding great bargains. The pictures I am sharing are from my vacation this month with my husband in Québec.

02/02/2026

Member Spotlight: Serenity Birth Center ✨

Serenity Birth Center, established over four years ago with a mission of safe, empowering, community based maternity care, is Nevada’s only accredited freestanding birth center.

Serving 40% Medicaid families, they welcome an average of 275 births each year, reflecting both community trust and the growing demand for high quality, relationship based care. Their passionate and diverse team has worked tirelessly to build trusted partnerships with hospitals and collaborating providers, earning recognition as preferred providers in Las Vegas.

Serenity's yearly perinatal outcomes consistently far outperform Nevada’s own statewide statistics, underscoring our commitment to safety, equity, and exceptional family centered care.

The birth center's recent achievements include:
❤️ 2025 reaccreditation with zero discrepancies
❤️ Secured sponsorship for leading CPM licensure for upcoming legislation
❤️ Secured facility contract with Tricare
❤️ With Nevada’s shortage of CNM’s, they have happily filled our CNM positions required for proper coverage within the practice

Congratulations on an amazing year, Serenity Birth Center!

02/01/2026

👏 We would not have midwifery care without Black midwives! 👏

Black midwives today stand upon a centuries-long history of midwifery expertise and ancient healing practices originating with traditional African midwifery and later brought to the US.
Did you know:
🤎 The first recorded African midwife came to the Americas in 1619 as an enslaved woman
🤎 Black midwives, often called Granny Midwives, were often enslaved African women. They cared for pregnant folks and newborns of enslaved peoples, and were also often made to provide perinatal care for their captures' families.
🤎 After release from enslavement, Black midwives cared for rural Southern families who often could not access hospital care
🤎 Despite this rich history of Black, Indigenous, and immigrant midwives providing the majority of perinatal care in the United States, we now see an immense disparity in the number of Black midwives, as well as in the health outcomes of Black birthing people.

Black midwives have tackled generations of systemic barriers to nurture and protect the lives of their communities, and that has never stopped. This month and always, we celebrate the ancient knowledge, the resilience, and the incredible care of Black Midwives.

01/26/2026

📰 The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and the Mississippi Center for Justice have filed a federal lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s requirement that certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) secure a collaborating physician to practice.
The plaintiffs argue this law is anticompetitive, does not improve safety, and exacerbates the state’s maternal health crisis by restricting CNMs and increasing costs. They seek to overturn the law as unconstitutional and a barrier to care, emphasizing the alignment of their efforts with Medicaid initiatives to broaden access to birth centers.

Getty Israel, founder of Sisters in Birth and AABC member, supports the lawsuit, citing past unsuccessful attempts to remove the restriction through legislation. She describes working with her state representative for over three years to pass bills excluding CNMs from the Collaborative Practice Agreement, which were defeated by medical associations. Israel calls the lawsuit essential to her mission—shared by Medicaid’s TMaH Initiative—to open new opportunities for nurse-midwives in freestanding birth centers.

To learn more, visit https://mscenterforjustice.org/american-college-of-nurse-midwives-files-lawsuit-challenging-constitutionality-of-mississippis-anticompetitive-prohibition-against-certified-nurse-midwives-practicing-without-a-collaborating-physici/

01/21/2026

Birth centers are a safe, evidence-based option for low-risk pregnancies. Twin Cities Birth Center is designed specifically for people with healthy, low-risk pregnancies who want personalized, attentive care in a calm environment.

There is safety in knowing your patient, listening closely, and responding thoughtfully at every stage of pregnancy and birth. TCBC offers free one on one consultations so that you can learn more and ask questions. Request a consultation here: https://www.twincitiesbc.com/contact

photo: St. Paul Photo Co.

01/20/2026

Member Spotlight: Corvallis Birth Center in Oregon ✨
Corvallis Birth Center is owned by Julia Bailey (CPM, LDM, IBCLC) and Elizabeth Baer (CPM, LDM) with a mighty team of six midwives and six doulas/birth assistants on staff!

After many years of running a homebirth practice, Elizabeth and Julia were asked to buy and continue the legacy of the Corvallis Birth Center, which was originally opened by Susan Heinz, CNM.

Their practice primarily serves clients with Medicaid, and they recently got their first commercial in-network insurance contract! They've also made it through their first year of combo home/birth center practice! 👏

Let's say hello to our friends at Corvallis!👋