A more natural approach to health care is growing trend nationwide, but here in Philadelphia folks are especially in search of such options.
The Philadelphia Midwife Collective, a nonprofit midwifery practice, serves as an affirming space for people seeking sexual health care, reproductive justice and birth options.
Based in Northwest Philadelphia, the organization offers everything from prenatal to postpartum care both at-home or in-hospital, gynecologic care, fertility care and more.
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Now the Collective is striving to help more locals with the city’s first birth center, slated to open in Germantown next spring. It has launched a GoFundMe to help make that project happen. Currently, the page has raised more than $11,000 of the $50,000 goal in just one month. You can donate here.
Why is birth center care important? According to the Collective, it will service local marginalized populations — including people of color and LGBTQ individuals — who often face higher infant and maternal death rates, not to mention discrimination.
Birth centers are also known to produce more vaginal births, which cuts down on the nation’s caesarian-section rate and a number of related health implications, it says.
How else is it different? As a nonprofit, clients are assured its work and values are driven by the community rather than profits, the organization says.
Learn more about how the GoFundMe monies will be spent and about the organization as a whole here.