“We are experiencing a maternal health crisis like never before in Kentucky and want to explore how a neighboring state is successfully bringing this needed capability to mothers in the commonwealth.”
FRANKFORT, KY. (Aug. 23, 2024)—Yesterday, Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer, R-Alexandria, and other Kentucky legislative leaders toured the Tree of Life Family Birthing Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana. They were exploring the unique capabilities and challenges birthing centers face in Indiana so that Kentucky might work toward a similar solution to the current maternal health crisis.
“We are experiencing a maternal health crisis like never before in Kentucky and want to explore how a neighboring state is successfully bringing this needed capability to mothers in the commonwealth,” said Funke Frommeyer.
Kentucky last had freestanding birth centers in operation in the 1980s. Nearly 60 percent of the annual births at Tree of Life are Kentucky families who traveled there from across state lines, some from as far as two hours away.
“We are building on the momentum of the 2024 legislative session, which experienced bipartisan support for a birthing center framework to be built in Kentucky,” Frommeyer said.
Frommeyer and Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Middletown, filed companion bills in both chambers during the 2024 legislative session. Nemes’ bill was House Bill 199 and dubbed the Mary Carol Akers Birth Centers Act. Frommeyer filed the Senate version in Senate Bill 103. Both legislators intend to file similar, companion bills in 2025.
According to the American Association of Birth Centers, a birth center is a health care facility for childbirth where care is provided in the midwifery and wellness model. The birth center is freestanding and not part of an existing hospital.
Birth centers are an integrated part of the health care system and are guided by principles of prevention, sensitivity, safety, appropriate medical intervention, and cost-effectiveness. While midwifery and the support of physiologic birth and newborn transition may occur in other settings, this is the exclusive model of care in a birth center.
Other lawmakers who joined Frommeyer and Nemes included Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville; Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield; Sen. Adrienne Southworth, R-Lawrenceburg; Sen. John Schickel, R-Union; and Rep. Rachel Roarx, D-Louisville.
The Kentucky Birth Coalition, Kentucky Association of Nurse Practitioners & Nurse Midwives, Metro United Way, and Kentucky Voices for Health co-hosted the collaborative visit.
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