Parents in Detroit will soon be able to seek birthing care at a Black-led freestanding birth center, the first of its kind in Michigan.

Birth Detroit, a community-based maternal health-care provider led by midwives on Detroit’s northwest side, has been serving families via the Easy Access Clinic in recent years. The goal from its inception in 2018 was to have its own center, said Elon Geffrard, Birth Detroit’s co-founder and perinatal support and education director.

That goal will soon come to fruition.

After launching a fundraising campaign in 2022, Birth Detroit raised $4 million to fund a freestanding birth center. To celebrate, the nonprofit plans to host a grand opening party in October, Geffrard said. The organization aims to shift its services from its shared space with Brilliant Detroit, a nonprofit that supports kids and families, to its new birth center and eventually serve more families. Birth Detroit has also partnered with the nonprofit health-care organization Henry Ford Health to send patients to its nearby facility in cases of an emergency, Geffrard said.

Birth Detroit offers pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, prenatal screenings, nutrition and breastfeeding support, and labor preparation. It also offers classes to educate people about nutrition, stress management, stages of labor, and other pregnancy information. Once open, Birth Detroit will continue—and aims to grow—classes, Geffrard said.

“It was important to us to create a birth center for Detroit in Detroit, because it’s never been done, and it’s not been a readily available option, particularly for Black and brown families in our community,” Geffrard said. “And so we wanted to be the first.”

Birth Detroit’s efforts to create the birth center started before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but when it arrived, Geffrard said, “We knew we needed to help families navigate systems that were oftentimes leaving them without support and advocacy.”

The center features two private exam rooms, a co-working space, laundry room, and a large birth suite that can be divided into two smaller birth suites, said........

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