•HRES 1444 IH 
priate medical intervention, shared decisionmaking, and 
cost effectiveness; 
Whereas over 400 birth centers across the United States pro-
vide patient and family centered health care that includes 
a broad range of services such as wellness exams, pre-
natal care, childbirth and postpartum care, newborn 
exams, STI screenings and treatments, contraceptive 
care, and family building services; 
Whereas birth centers are based on the midwifery model of 
care which combines millennia of childbearing knowledge 
with modern technology and skills; 
Whereas 60 percent of mothers giving birth in the United 
States meet risk criteria for birth center care; 
Whereas the safety and efficacy of midwifery-led community 
birth centers have been repeatedly documented over four 
decades, and two large-scale national birth centers’ stud-
ies published in 1989 and 2013 documented safe and 
cost-effective care in birth centers; 
Whereas, in 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 
Services-funded, five-year Strong Start Initiative dem-
onstrated that birth center care significantly reduces 
preterm and low-birthweight births and cesarean section 
rates, and increases breastfeeding rates and duration for 
Medicaid beneficiaries, leading to better health and high 
value for childbearing women and infants; 
Whereas a 2020 study demonstrated that rural families cared 
for in birth centers, including those who transferred to 
higher levels of care, had lower incidences of episiotomy, 
cesarean birth, and induction, and had higher rates of ex-
clusive breastfeeding, higher average birthweight in 
pounds and higher Apgar scores at five minutes; 
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•HRES 1444 IH 
Whereas the number of families seeking community birth 
continues to grow, and according to National Vital Sta-
tistics Reports, between 2019 and 2022, there was a 
33.2-percent increase in families opting to give birth in 
community settings, including a 51.5-percent increase for 
Black families, a 57-percent increase for Native Amer-
ican families, a 51.5-percent increase for Hispanic fami-
lies, and a 28-percent increase for White and Asian fami-
lies; 
Whereas a 2022 research study found that community birth 
centers, especially those providing culturally centered 
care, enhance the experience of perinatal care for pa-
tients and families in rural, minority, and underserved 
communities; 
Whereas birth centers based on the midwifery model of care 
are indisputable solutions to the ongoing crisis in the 
United States perinatal care system, a system which 
ranks poorly in comparison to other high-resource coun-
tries and suffers from multiple disparities in rural, mi-
nority, and underserved communities; 
Whereas every person deserves access to a birth center, and 
the public deserves to understand the demonstrated effec-
tiveness of freestanding birth center care that is led by 
midwives and governed by the midwifery model of care; 
and 
Whereas, in order to support these efforts, the week of Sep-
tember 14 through 20, 2024, would be appropriate to cel-
ebrate midwifery-led community birth, to create opportu-
nities to grow birth centers and their safe and effective 
model of care, and to imagine a world where birth is safe, 
sacred, loving, and celebrated in every community: Now, 
therefore, be it 
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•HRES 1444 IH 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) acknowledges the safe, high value, family 
centered care being provided in America’s birth cen-
ters; 
(2) recognizes National Birth Center Week and 
encourages families, communities, health care and 
public health professionals, hospitals and health care 
institutions, health care insurers, policymakers and 
regulatory agencies at all levels of government, and 
philanthropic leaders to take this time to learn more 
about the safety and effectiveness of birth centers 
and the midwifery model of care; and 
(3) thanks America’s birth centers and supports 
increased use of the birth center model to expand 
access to high-quality care and improve perinatal 
outcomes for families across the United States. 
Æ 
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