Discover our programs.

BCE’s work and contributions to the birth justice ecosystem span four programmatic priorities: Community, Capital, Catalyst, and Culture.

Through our Community program, BCE amplifies the collective identity and power of Black, Indigenous, people of color-led community birth centers by growing a relationship-based network grounded in shared vision and values. Click here to learn more about the BCE Network.

Network Offerings
BCE offers three circles of support to Black, Indigenous, people of color who are working to open, operate, and sustain community birth centers. Each circle provides tailored programs and grants for centers at various levels of development. Through these circles, BCE seeks to support Black, Indigenous, people of color leading birth centers in growing relationships and resources toward sustainable development within the birth justice movement.

• The Community Circle includes birth center leaders at all stages of development. For members of the Community Circle BCE offers:
  • Monthly Power Hours, a virtual community space for Circle members to gather and share challenges, resources, and achievements;
  • Quarterly Wisdom Circles, virtual learning and curated conversation spaces, engaging subject matter experts to share ideas, experiences, insights and lessons to support healthy and sustainable birth center development and operations;
  • Technical Assistance and Support are opportunities throughout the year, such as coaching sessions offered by BCE in collaboration with
  • Kinfolk Consulting;
  • Grants for leadership development, planning, and other ecosystem needs.
• The Capital Circle supports birth center leaders engaged in strategic fundraising and growth. The Capital Circle includes established birth centers, developing birth centers, as well as easy access clinics and homebirth practices working to develop birth centers. For members of the Capital Circle BCE offers:
  • Quarterly Capital Chats: Quarterly virtual conversation space focused on fundraising, integrated finance and business development;
  • Grants including Open Doors Initiative grants, rapid response grants, and an annual general operating Capital Circle distribution.
  • Network Gathering. Every two years, BCE hosts the BCE Network Gathering an in-person space for BCE Network birth center leaders to connect, fortify relationships, collectively vision, and strategize to courageously create alternative futures and new economic models with midwifery and community birth at the center. The first BCE Network Gathering took place in 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The 2025 BCE Network Gathering will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
• The Catalyst Circle will launch in 2025 to support Capital Circle members engaged in high-impact projects, such as real estate acquisition, birth center or other business acquisition, birth center expansion, collaborative infrastructure building, endowment formation, and/or enterprise expansion. Members of the Catalyst Circle will be eligible for Individualized Technical Assistance, Enterprise Coaching & Capacity Building, Real Estate Development Support, Regional Strategy Development, and Full-Spectrum Capital Opportunities.
  Network Collaborations

Grounded in the wisdom and ideas of the BCE Network, BCE shapes collaborative projects with member working groups to address pressing opportunities and/or challenges.

In 2025, BCE facilitated a member working group to create State-Based Strategies for Midwives and Birth Centers, by and for midwives and birth center leaders to use with state policy and decision makers. State-Based Strategies provides pragmatic entry points to positively impact the capacity of midwives and birth center leaders to provide community based perinatal care.

BCE’s Capital program raises funds for the BCE Network and key areas of the birth justice ecosystem. BCE’s capital initiatives include:

• Open Doors/Keep Doors Open. BCE provides Open Doors/Keep Doors Open grants directly to BCE Network members for whom specific financial support will enable them to move from a developing to an established birth center, as well as for established birth centers seeking specific funds to ensure their sustainability and/or increase access to care. From 2020 to 2024, BCE provided $3.1M in direct financial distributions to Black, Indigenous, people of color-led birth centers. In 2024, BCE distributed $660,200 directly to birth centers led by Black, Indigenous, people of color.
• Rapid Response. As situations arise that have negative collective impact on birth centers, BCE is prepared to provide Rapid Response grants. Examples of Rapid Response grantmaking includes the 2021 distribution of $100,000 in COVID rapid response grants to the BCE Network and the 2023 distribution of grants to BCE Network birth centers impacted by flooding in the Southern states.
• Writing Us Back into Birth Story (Trans and GNC Birth Fund): In 2024, BCE & Orchid Capital Collective created the Writing Ourselves Back Into the Birth Story Fund to envision new models and provide direct care for TIGNC individuals and families. In 2024, Writing Ourselves Back Into the Birth Story awarded $100,000 to 7 Trans*, Intersex, and Gender Non-Confirming Black, Indigenous, people of color-led organizations and collectives.

Please contact us at invest@birthcenetrequity.org to learn more and help us fundraise. We look forward to connections and ideas from you.

The core of BCE’s Catalyst work is the Beloved Economy Studio (BESt™) which advances birth center sustainability through business and leadership development, public-private partnerships, integrated financial models, and economies of scale. The BESt™ team is managed by Dr. Diana N Derige and includes a unique team of subject matter experts spanning public health, business, community development, health equity, real estate, midwifery, and continuum of care professionals. BESt™ leverages our relationships with organizations across the country to ensure high levels of quality assurance, expertise in birth center business models and provision of culturally reverent care. The work of BESt™ includes:

• Municipal Birth Center Projects. Through research and development, BCE’s Municipal Birth Center Projects are shaping models and best practices for community birth center infrastructure that is supported by municipal partnerships as a public health intervention.
• BESt™ Brains offers collaborative solution-finding sessions that address urgent sustainability challenges faced by local birth centers. Each BESt™ Brains session brings together local and national experts and stakeholders to develop actionable plans that address urgent sustainability challenges identified by a local birth center host.

Birth Center Equity is dedicated to bringing forth a world where midwives, families, and communities thrive. We know that the future we are growing – in which community birth centers are resourced as essential safe birth infrastructure, midwives are respected as leaders in care, and communities thrive in the values of safety, abundance and liberation – will be rooted in the culture we nourish and the stories we tell. We recognize that all of our work in strengthening and resourcing lasting birth center infrastructure is made more powerful and more possible when it is grounded in narrative and cultural strategy.
BCE’s Culture work is integral to our mission of growing birth infrastructure, resources, power, and innovation. BCE’s Culture work includes:

• Beloved Birth 50 By 50. Today, the need for bold action to improve birth care in the US is clear. Headline after headline tells the story of birth care infrastructure that fails to provide high-quality care to all birthing families. It’s time to bring our collective brilliance, resources, and courage forth to achieve a goal that’s big enough to solve the problem. This is why, in January 2025, Birth Center Equity put forth an audacious goal:

   

  By 2050, 50% of babies in the US will
  come into the world with the care of midwives.

• In putting this goal forth, BCE invites everyone, everywhere to commit to it with their own talents, resources, and networks. BCE is a catalyst for Beloved Birth 50 By 50, seeking to spark significant change and action that we are part of – and that unfolds exponentially beyond us. Beloved Birth 50 By 50 is an open source goal for every leader, every sector, and every community member to commit to and generate action toward. For more about Beloved Birth 50 By 50 click here (coming soon).”

• Birth Center Week. Birth Center Week (BCW) was founded by Birth Center Equity in 2023, in collaboration with artist and birth justice leader China Tolliver, to grow awareness of the impact and potential of birth centers, with a focus on community birth centers that provide safe, culturally-reverent, midwifery-led health care for all. Birth Center Week is celebrated every year from September 14 to September 20. The theme of Birth Center Week 2025 (BCW25) is “We Are Beloved Birth.” For more about Birth Center Week click here.