Birthing Beautiful Communities, a Cleveland nonprofit dedicated to lowering the city’s high infant mortality rate, has big expansion plans, including a new $9 million birthing center.
The organization serves about 600 families a year — most of whom are Black. CEO Jazmin Long said the new 10,000-square-foot facility in the Hough neighborhood, which has an 88% Black population, will allow her organization to expand its free resources and services to more families.
Plans for the center are moving forward "quickly," Long said, thanks to $1 million in funding approved last month by Cleveland City Council. The money comes from the city’s more than $500 million share of American Rescue Plan Act funds, intended to help communities hit hardest by the pandemic.
“This will allow us to open what will be the only Black-led, free-standing birth center in the state of Ohio — one of only a few in the country — and something really innovative and catalytic,” Long said.
Cuyahoga County has among the highest infant mortality rates in the country. According to First Year Cleveland, nearly three-quarters of babies who died before their first birthday in 2020 were Black.
That disparity, Long said, is largely due to medical racism, a discriminatory practice based on biases about a particular race or ethnicity, as well as systemic issues like lack of resources. In 2020, Cleveland declared racism a public health crisis.
“That’s why our work becomes so important," Long said. "Because it’s that one-on-one social support, like teaching people how to just decompress, giving a safe place to talk about what’s happening to people in their workplaces, their home lives, whatever, and then being able to offer services that are culturally relevant.”
Long estimates 90% of women who visit the center and use its resources, which are open to everyone, are Black. Success rates are high.
Birthing Beautiful Communities now offers a wide range of services, including labor and postpartum support, through instructional courses, birth plans, transportation help and nutritional grocery days.
The new center will continue that mission, and offer gynecological care, mental health services and allow patients to give birth on site.
“There has been a huge uptick nationally of women wanting to have options with respect to where they can birth,” Long said. “Right now, in the state of Ohio, a birthing center really is the only option you have outside of a healthcare system to birth and utilize insurance, both private and Medicaid. This is that alternative for people who want it.”
Long hopes the center, which she expects to open in 2025, will deliver between 50 and 100 babies in the first year.
