Mission Possible: Future birthing center run by Black women for Black women
African American babies in Greater Cleveland are dying at significantly higher rates than the national average. A local organization wants to change those numbers.
CLEVELAND — The numbers are alarming.
“Infant mortality is a major issue here in Northeast Ohio, with Black babies dying in some communities up to seven times the rate of white babies,” stated Jazmin Long, President and CEO of Birthing Beautiful Communities.
A condition known as toxic stress is to blame, according to the non-profit BBC. The organization provides support to pregnant women at greatest risk of infant mortality. Toxic stress, they say, is the result of systemic racism and Black women’s voices not being heard in doctors’ offices. That's why the BBC is there to help.
“Empowering clients and their families to feel as though they have, the option, they have choices that they can really, take their own medical care in their own hands,” Long said.
BBC trains doulas, a person to give emotional support advocate for the mother throughout the birthing journey. Transportation and other assistance are also available.
“Anything that can cause a mom stress. We want to be here to provide that support and help to alleviate that,” said Chantel Tolbert, Chief Advancement Officer for Birthing Beautiful Communities.
800 families are helped each year. But the BBC wants to do more. This fall, they hope to break ground on Cleveland's only freestanding birth center.
“This is going to be a facility where we're able to have all of our classes, all of our doula trainings, and we will actually have clients giving birth because it's going to be a birth center on the first floor,” explained Long.
“We'll also have space for nutrition classes, postpartum rooms, and exercise room. So that will serve as a space for our moms to come in, our doulas to come in and be able to just enjoy,” added Tolbert.
The location at East 65th Street and Chester Avenue serves a purpose. The Hough neighborhood is where the BBC got its start, as a pilot program. And the $15 million project will add to MidTown's revival.
“Hough has been, has dealt with a lot of infant mortality in that community, and that's the reason why we were founded in that very community,” said Tolbert. “And so we want to come back and be of service and support to those women.”
“This space is going to be a beacon of hope for the community just because of how beautiful it is,” remarked Long.
Ohio law allows hospital births or home births with a midwife present. The new center will give families another choice.
“We're very intentional about what this space looks like and how we want people to feel when they enter this space,” said Tolbert. “And so we think people will be excited for this. This is something that is for Black women by Black women.”
The City of Cleveland is supporting the project with $1 million.
“So those are the dollars, the catalytic dollars to help us get started so that we can go out and show like, this is successful,” said Long “This is something that the community believes in.”
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott also awarded the organization a $2 million grant.
“And that is just such a blessing,” Long said. “And so we are hoping to use the additional million to further our organization’s endowment.”
Combined, the support is building a legacy, for the health of future generations. And for families whose voices are part of their own birthing experience.
“These are Black women who could be my mother, sisters, cousins who I want to insure, able to safely have a child, to be protected, to be valued, to feel empowered,” said Long.
The birthing center will also house Birthing Beautiful Communities offices and community space. And while it is run by Black women for Black women, any women in need of their services are welcome.
WKYC Mission Possible | Jeff Reidel
The Village of Joy: A new birth for Birthing Beautiful Communities
Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC) will soon open the only Black-led freestanding birthing center in Ohio under the leadership of its CEO, Jazmin Long in May 2025. BBC offers a doula program uniquely dedicated to supporting Black mothers and infants by addressing social, economic, and structural determinants of health, such as systemic racism, that cause poor birth outcomes. It provides labor support, mental health, transportation and other supportive services to individuals and families throughout pregnancy and up to the first year following childbirth.
Birthing Beautiful Community’s new facility in Hough
The new birth center will be in the Hough community, where BBC’s work first began because it is a neighborhood that is highly impacted with an infant mortality rate that is four times the national rate. Its location will be at the intersection of East 65th Street and Chester Avenue, a site intentionally chosen because of its cultural significance to the community.
This 10,000 square foot facility will offer a more natural birthing experience in a home-like environment. Like other freestanding birth centers, one important feature is holistic care being provided by midwives with the assistance of doulas. Providers at BBC’s freestanding birth center will utilize less medical interventions in the attempt to reduce the chances of using other procedures such as inductions, epidurals, or C-sections that are not always necessary for moms and infants.
Benefits such as improving access to more affordable care and fewer medical interventions can lead to more positive birthing experiences and improved mental health and birthing outcomes for Black women and infants in the community.
Birth centers and hospital partnerships
BBC will partner with hospitals to provide support for women who may eventually need more medical interventions. Other services at the new center will also include pre-and postnatal visits and gynecological care for all women. In addition to the center, BBC has partnered with Village of Healing since the summer of 2023 to offer a 2-year doula-midwife program to explore how combining the benefits of both can reduce infant mortality.
BBC and its collaboration with Village of Healing will allow both organizations to continue the amazing, lifesaving work they do in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio for those who are at the highest risk for maternal and infant mortality. Benefits such as improving access to more affordable care and fewer medical interventions can lead to more positive birthing experiences and improved mental health and birthing outcomes for Black women and infants in the community.
The Center for Community Solutions | Taneisha Fair, Associate, Racial Equity
1 big thing: Ohio's first Black-led, free-standing birth center
1 big thing: Ohio's first Black-led, free-standing birth center
The nonprofit Birthing Beautiful Communities (BBC), Cleveland's only organization dedicated solely to improving birth outcomes for Black mothers and children, has launched its first-ever capital campaign with the goal of building a birthing center in Hough.
Why it matters: The funding will help pay for the construction of a $15 million facility in a historically redlined neighborhood that is nearly 90% Black and has an infant mortality rate far higher than the national average.
Upcoming Cleveland birthing center to help reduce maternal and infant mortality
Upcoming Cleveland birthing center to help reduce maternal and infant mortality
CLEVELAND — A local non-profit is working to improve Cleveland's status of being the worst city for Black women by offering a new option for expectant mothers.
It may be just a vacant lot now, but soon the land at the intersection of East 65th Street and Chester Avenue in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood will be home to something designed for expectant Black mothers. It will be Northeast Ohio’s only freestanding community-led, Black-led birthing center, according to the non-profit Birthing Beautiful Communities, which is behind the up-and-coming birthing center, which has been in the works since 2017.
B.B.C. President and CEO Jazmin Long told News 5’s Courtney Gousman this center has been a dream for them to achieve.
Two nonprofits combatting infant mortality receive $1.2 million grant to start doula, midwife program
Two nonprofits combatting infant mortality receive $1.2 million grant to start doula, midwife program
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A national grant given to two Cleveland-area nonprofits is aimed at increasing Black women’s chances for healthy pregnancies and raising thriving infants by providing them with support from doulas and midwives.
Birthing Beautiful Communities and Village of Healing — an organization and a women’s health clinic working to reduce infant mortality and support maternal health in the Black community — will form a collaborative to share a $1.2 million, two-year grant.
E6: Medical Misogynoir Pt. 1
E6: Medical Misogynoir Pt. 1
When their lives are placed into the hands of white doctors and nurses, Black women’s basic needs can quickly evolve into life-threatening ordeals. Medical professionals’ lack of empathy demands that Black women prioritize advocating for themselves and their families over self-care. How can Black women be healthy when doctors refuse to really hear them?
Living For We
In 2020, cityLAB of Pittsburgh released a study that ranked Cleveland dead last in terms of livability for Black women. On Living For We, we talk to Cleveland's Black women about their experiences at work, at school, in the doctor's office, and in community with each other in an attempt to answer the question... is Cleveland really as bad as they say it is for Black women?
Birth center aimed at Black infant, maternal mortality among Cuyahoga County social services requests in Ohio capital budget
Birth center aimed at Black infant, maternal mortality among Cuyahoga County social services requests in Ohio capital budget
Birthing center
The total project cost of the birthing center will be around $8 million. Birthing Beautiful Communities is asking for $2 million in state funding, said Jazmin Long, the organization’s executive director.
“There are numerous studies that show that birth center births with culturally relevant and competent care is a major way to reduce infant death,” she said.
Birthing centers are staffed by midwives, not obstetricians and gynecologists. Birthing Beautiful Communities wants to offer a more natural setting than a hospital, such as having bathtubs, birth balls and birth coaching services. Birth centers generally don’t administer medication to patients, except for laughing gas, Long said.
Currently, Birthing Beautiful Communities offers labor and delivery doulas for hospital births and will continue to offer that service once the birthing center is constructed for patients who prefer a hospital setting.
The nonprofit is in the process of buying property on Chester Avenue in Cleveland. Construction of the birthing center is expected to begin soon after, Long said, with the goal of finishing by the fall of 2023.
“We hope in the first year to deliver 100 babies and grow to serve more clients,” she said. “We’ll be providing wellness care, so basically Pap smears and things like that.”