This Used To Be A Birth Center
Highlighting the staggering loss of birth centers in downtown New York in the last twenty years
Elizabeth Seton at 222. West 14th street opened in 1996 and closed in 2003 due to high malpractice insurance.
St. Vincent’s in-hospital birthing center at 151 West 11th street closed in 2010 due to financial pressure. The site is now luxury condos.
Bellevue’s public in-hospital birthing center in Midtown East opened in 1998 and closed in 2009 due to financial pressure.
Mt. Sinai West’s in-hospital birth center near Columbus Circle closed in 2018 in favor of private postpartum rooms and a NICU.
The in-hospital birthing center at New York Presbyterian in Lower Manhattan opened in 2016 and closed in 2019.
The Jazz Birthing Center in Midtown West opened as an emergency facility during the Covid-19 pandemic and closed in 2021 due to staffing issues.
Anti-midwife propaganda from the early 20th century
The racist campaign intersected with sexism and misogyny “Old, untrained, ignorant”
The campaign against lay midwives was blatantly racist “they bring with them filthy customs & practices” “ignorant & superstitious”
Again “they bring with them filthy customs & practices” Racism and xenophobia targeted Black Grandmother midwives, but also immigrant midwives.
“African voodooism” & quote from field nurses “The worst feature about midwives…is the indifference of those engaged in medical & public health as to the kind of work these women are doing” White nurses sided with physicians against lay midwives & eventually replaced them.
When in fact the infant death rate was higher in births attended by physicians than midwives at that time.
“Medical schools had no clinical facilities…and a high school diploma was not required for admission” “Through the AMA the regulars attacked female & lay practice in anyway they could” Rockefeller & Carnegie to medical schools “regularize, de-feminize or close”