About Us
Since 2019
Our Story
Our Community Birth Center is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization, located in the Eugene-Springfield area of Oregon and serving residents of Lane County and surrounding areas. The former Nurse Midwifery Birth Center was a highly sought-out and respected health care center in Lane County from the late 1970s up until its closure in November 2019. Read our Lane County Birth Center Historical Timeline for more details.
The formation of Our Community Birth Center was inspired by the six month long community advocacy campaign to #SaveTheNurseMidwiferyBirthCenter in summer of 2019 when PeaceHealth announced their plan to close the Nurse Midwifery Birth Center. Birth center clients, community members, and health care providers rallied, wrote letters, and expressed their support of the birth center in so many ways during that time. The vast and passionate advocacy effort clearly demonstrated that our community desires and deserves access to birth center services.
Our Community Birth Center was founded in September 2019 to carry forward a 40-plus year long tradition of nurse midwifery birth center care in Lane County. The current lack of a birth center in Eugene and Springfield constitutes a serious gap in health care services for all of Lane County, and Our Community Birth Center is working to close that gap as quickly as possible. We invite you to support our Fundraising Campaign to open a new birth center by making a donation today and by signing up to volunteer.
COMPREHENSIVE
Health Care and Support
Our Community Birth Center will provide a wrap around health care and support for families, birthing parents, and babies. Our programs specialize in the care of the childbearing person and also include all options pregnancy counseling, newborn and lactation care, women’s and LGBTQIA+ health care, family planning, classes, social connection and community support, and postpartum home visits. All of our care is provided by expert, professional health care providers in a single location that is familiar to clients. And all these forms of care are proven to contribute to best outcomes for mothers and babies. Birth center care contributes to fewer c-sections, preterm births and low birth weight infants, as well as, increased success in breastfeeding. These are all concrete ways that a birth center contributes to the health and well-being of our community’s tiniest citizens and the parents who birth and nurture them.
Welcome to our
New Space!
Plans to open the new birth center took a big step forward when we signed a lease agreement on a space in March 2021. Design and remodeling will take place during summer 2021 to convert this lovely home-like space adjacent to Island Park in Springfield, Oregon into a birth center and clinic to serve our community. We cannot wait to welcome parents and babies into our new center where they will receive client-centered care and wrap around support through their journey to parenthood and beyond.
