JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. – A group of Kentucky lawmakers visited a freestanding birthing center in Indiana on Thursday to learn about an issue that is expected to come up again in the 2025 legislative session.
Tree of Lifea freestanding birth center in Jeffersonville – just across the Ohio River from Louisville – accepts only patients with low-risk pregnancies. It was founded by doctors and midwives from WomanCare, an OB-GYN group in Indiana.
And more than half (61 percent) of all births last year were from Kentucky, traveling to other states to receive the care they cannot get in Kentucky, where there are no stand-alone birth centers.
This comes as lawmakers have been considering for years whether Kentucky could, by repealing or amending its Certificate of need (CON) Requirements for freestanding birth centers.
What you should know about the Certificate of Need debate in Kentucky
Advocates blame the state’s lack of freestanding birth centers on certification of need laws, which require a process designed to keep health care costs down by certifying that there is a need for a service, whether it be additional beds in a hospital, an additional MRI machine, or an entirely new facility, such as a freestanding birth center.
Sen. Shelley Funke Frommeyer (R-Alexandria) invited her fellow lawmakers to the center for a tour and fact-finding mission Thursday to show her colleagues firsthand what they will be voting on next year.
She and House Majority Whip Jason Nemes, R-Louisville, — both Convinced supporters of freestanding birth centers – told the Lantern that they plan to support bills again in 2025 to reform CON so that Kentucky can open stand-alone birth centers.
According to Funke Frommeyer, birth “is a physiologically natural process, but when we talk about it in the committee, the immediate comment is that it is not safe,” she said. “That’s why I wanted to show people what ‘safe’ looks like.”
Other lawmakers joining her and Nemes included Republican Senators Julie Raque Adams of Louisville, Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield, Adrienne Southworth and John Schickel of Union, and Representative Rachel Roarx (D-Louisville).
Mary Kathryn DeLodder of the Kentucky Birth Coalition said the tour provided good insight for people who are neutral on the birth control issue — and gave new impetus to advocates.
Nemes agreed.
“Some people don’t know in their mind what a birth center is. And some people, when they think about it, wonder, ‘Is this like a hotel room? How safe is this?'” he said. “So we wanted people to come here and say, ‘Look, these people are serious about making sure that mother and baby are healthy, not just at the moment of birth — that’s safe — but before and after.'”
Tree of Life has four rooms, eight midwives and three partner doctors.
As of 2022, there were more than 400 freestanding birth centers in 40 states and Washington DC, according to the American Association for Home Births.
Kentucky babies. Born in Indiana.
Tree of Life is one of the out-of-state centers that Hundreds of babies born in Kentuckyborn to mothers who must travel for care they cannot get in the Commonwealth.
And the number of babies born in Kentucky growing up in the Tree of Life is increasing.
In 2023, 120 Kentucky residents gave birth at the center, representing 61% of all births at Tree of Life.
In 2022, 110 Kentuckians traveled to Tree of Lifean increase from 107 in 2021 and 71 in 2020.
As of July 31, 69 Kentucky residents have given birth at Tree of Life in 2024, representing 57% of births, according to the center’s data.
One of the Kentucky women who chose to give birth at Tree of Life, an hour’s drive from her home in Trimble County, is Paige Thompson.
She wanted to give birth under the care of a midwife rather than in a hospital, and she also wanted to be the first woman in her family to have a vaginal birth in many years.
When she gave birth in 2022, she felt “very comfortable” at the Tree of Life, which is directly across from Clark Memorial Hospital, allowing for quick transfers if needed.
“When I give birth here with a midwife, I can eat and drink whatever I want,” she explained. “I can move however I want. I can give birth in any position that feels right for me. I can give birth in the tub – which I didn’t do, but… it’s an option – and those are really big for me.”
Tree of Life is not the only organization that delivers babies in Kentucky. Clarksville Midwives A practice in Tennessee delivers about 25 to 30 babies from Kentucky each year.
This is a sticking point for Funke Frommeyer, who has acknowledged the poor maternal health statistics in Kentucky.
“I want Kentucky to show that we have a lot of wonderful, healthy births,” she said. Because birth centers only work with low-risk pregnancies, their clients often have the least-interventional births. But if they travel to another state for that experience, Kentucky doesn’t get statistical recognition for it, meaning the state “misses the opportunity” to show its “amazing, healthy births without all the trauma.”
For Jessie Powell, a doula who lives in Meade County and accompanies her clients to Tree of Life, giving birth in such an environment is all about the mother’s well-being and informed consent, she said.
“It’s hard because childbirth is such an emotional situation,” she said. “In such an emotional situation, it’s physically impossible to really weigh the risks and benefits for yourself and consider the bigger picture.”
Rebekah Shirrell, one of the center’s midwives who previously worked as a nurse for nearly 20 years, said she understands the safety concerns in birthing centers. Each birthing center is prepared for emergencies, she said, and transport to the hospital is quick when needed.
“Nobody wants the birth to end badly, ever,” she said. “Nobody does it for that reason.”
