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Grow more birth centers, serve more families. Support the only foundation advancing the midwifery-led birth center model!

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  • Yes, we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our tax ID number is 23-2778441.

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    • Assuring continued development, expansion, and stability of the birth center model.

    • Supporting education of various audiences about the role of birth centers in improving reproductive health care.

    • Increasing accessibility to birth center care through support of educational opportunities for birth center providers and staff.

    • Funding ongoing quantitative and qualitative research and its dissemination.

    • Supporting birth centers achieving accreditation through the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers (CABC) as the standard for birth center excellence.  

About Our Named Funds

These funds were established to honor individuals whose passion continues to fuel our work today.

Amy Ellen Polk

Amy was a compassionate and intensely motivated woman who pursued her goals with confidence.  "She was very high-energy; when she knew what she wanted, she just went and did it; ... when she set her mind to something, it was just going to happen," says her widower, John Robinette, adding that his wife's enthusiasm for a birthing center came from her experiences with a similar center in Bethesda, Maryland that has since closed.

"We had two fantastic birth experiences at the Maternity Center in Bethesda, and then it shut down," he said. "To have that option go away didn't seem right, so she set out to fix that problem. ... In some ways, it feels like Amy died in childbirth with this infant child in [the form of] the birth center."

Both of Robinette's and Polk's two sons, Adam and Brian were born at the Bethesda maternity center before it closed in 2007.

Amy envisioned a birth center that would provide individualized care in a home-like setting to women throughout the lifespan, from onset of menstruation, through the childbearing years, to menopause and beyond. She sought to create a birth center that would monitor the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the woman throughout the childbearing cycle; provide individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support; and minimize technological interventions. This birth center would do nothing short of improving her community. It is the hope of Amy’s friends, family and colleagues that this scholarship will empower other like-minded individuals to start birth centers in their own hometowns as well.

Judith Pence Rooks

Judith Pence Rooks (1941-2020) was a renowned researcher, nurse-midwife, leader, and educator. Her accomplishments and accolades are many. She authored more than 85 publications, including the landmark National Birth Center Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Her leadership, research, and advocacy were instrumental in bringing nitrous oxide back into use in U.S. childbirth. She wrote the seminal treatise Midwifery and Childbirth in America and co-edited the award-winning Best Practices in Midwifery and Nurse-Midwifery in America.

Through the Judith P. Rooks Research Fund, we will extend Judith’s legacy by supporting critical research and removing barriers to its dissemination, like the recent journal article “Assessment of interprofessional collaboration at free-standing birth centers: Does collaboration influence outcomes?” This open-access research article was linked to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Lisa Dahin Ross

Lisa Dahin Ross was the Director of Midwifery Services at the Lisa Ross Birth & Women's Center (formerly the Maternity Center of East Tennessee) from 1994-1998.

A native of Clarksville, TN, Lisa was a nurse-practitioner and a nurse-midwife who helped establish the first freestanding birth center in Tennessee.

She was a huge proponent for licensure and accreditation for birth centers and worked to ensure quality services were delivered to patients. Lisa caught more than 1,000 babies in her career.

In 1998, she received the AABC Professional Achievement Award in recognition of her exemplary practice as a birth center midwife and her continuing contributions to the field.