06/02/2024
WE ARE CLOSING
It is with a heavy heart that we announce Monterey Birth & Wellness Center will be closing its doors on September 1st, 2024, almost 7 years after we opened Monterey's first and only Nationally Accredited freestanding Birth Center.
This announcement will inevitably be met with shock and confusion. When we opened in 2017, we had a vision of providing the best integrative midwifery care in an environment that supported physiologic birth and wellness. The goal of the Birth Center was to make this model of care visible and accessible to every family in Monterey County. Though we were never paid well, we knew those first few years would be spent developing relationships with the community and other providers and laying the groundwork for taking insurance, national accreditation and systems creation. The pandemic was a challenging time for us all. Unfortunately since then, we have seen the birth rate fall, the cost of utilities, medical supplies and malpractice skyrocket, without an increase in our insurance reimbursement rates. We have less cash pay families and occasionally, families have been unable to pay us at all.
Keeping MBWC open has dominated our every waking thought for the past three years. We have shifted our marketing in hopes of reaching more people, added more insurance and cost-share contracts, reduced our staff and expenses, and continued for months without a salary. Looking at our financials last month, the starkness of our inability to pay our most basic expenses revealed that closing the Birth Center was the only way forward.
Our closure will leave a hole in Monterey's healthcare system and in the hearts of the many families we have served over the past 7 years. The Birth Center was a symbol of what healthcare could be. The loss of this and the physical closure of our space is gutting.
This doesn't mean the end of our work in this community, though! Heather and Kelly will continue to offer community midwifery, lactation, well person, preconception and birth in the home setting. More info on this to come!
We appreciate every single kind word and all of the continued support during this very difficult time.
With Love,
The Wifeys
