Support Anacortes Birth Center's Launch

My name is Kelly McKittrick, and with Miranda Montellano, we are the team of Anacortes Midwifery Care certified nurse-midwives. We are raising money to help us open Anacortes Birth Center (ABC) in Anacortes, a rural community in the NorthWest corner of Washington State.

Anacortes Birth Center will be a free-standing birth center in historic Old Town, Anacortes, WA. We plan to serve women of our town and neighboring communities by offering a place to give birth outside the hospital with certified nurse-midwife (CNM) care. ABC plans to offer community birth within close proximity to our local hospital, IslandHealth, allowing for easy and safe transfer of care as needed. Anacortes Birth Center will accept all insurances, including Tricare and Medicaid.

Certified nurse-midwifery care has been shown to be an excellent choice for normal pregnancies and births due to improved maternal and neonatal outcomes in all settings: home, birth center, and hospital. As the certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) of Anacortes Midwifery Care, we provide care that allows women to feel empowered and become confident mothers by trusting their birthing instincts. Anacortes Midwifery Care has shown, since opening in January of 2019, that we are driven to safely support women in a variety of locations, including in hospitals and in the community.

Opening Anacortes Birth Center will improve options for low-risk women and people, especially those who desire community birth or who live in remote locations where home birth may be less safe (specifically, the San Juan Islands whose ferry brings them right into Anacortes, WA). Community birth is much less costly than low risk birth in a hospital due to a higher rate of vaginal deliveries, fewer babies requiring care in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and no options for epidural anesthesia. Because our office and planned birth center location is so close to the hospital, rapid transfer of care when rare emergency situations occur can be facilitated by ambulance or private vehicle quickly and with relative ease, allowing continuity of care and support. We see the need for a birth center to support families in our community.

We are building a birth center as an addition to the current building we occupy. As such, we are taking out loans to support construction but need support in order to pay additional associated fees (state licensure, city permits) and furnish the birth center with equipment, furniture, appliances and more.

Our birth center will have 2 birthing suites; each has a theme: one is "Forest" and the other is "Water," and they will be tastefully decorated with colors suggestive of those themes. Both rooms will have a shower, large birthing tub, double bed, comfortable chair, sink, storage, toilet, and equipment to support women in labor such as nitrous oxide, birth balls, slings, and more.

Thank you for considering a donation to our birth center!