Village Births
The Village School is working at the speed of collapse to design sustainable systems that meet our village’s needs. Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) has announced the closing of the Birthing Center, effective December 31, 2026. This upsetting news is also an opportunity to reimagine how to keep births local. With the country’s unacceptably high rate of maternal mortality we are not joining our neighbors who are fighting to keep the hospital’s labor and delivery department open amid significant budget cuts. After decades of demanding quality care for all, we find ourselves faced with the reality that our current healthcare system has left us with no options in the region. Rather than spend our time and energy making more demands of an institution that has stated clearly it can’t continue to provide care for us - we are creating what’s next. With you.
We will be led by the villagers who have been doing the work of keeping births local for decades - both in and outside of hospitals. We already know how to do this. We don’t need a hospital to keep births local. We do, however, need an Emergency Department capable of providing emergency c-sections. It is unclear if the many overlapping systems that dictate care at BMH can offer this and other specific and vital emergency perinatal care, but this is a very different question than asking the labor and delivery department to stay open and continue to borrow millions of dollars a year alongside increasing interest rates. Saving the Birthing Center at BMH is like putting a band-aid on a dilated cervix. We need what’s next even if they keep their doors open longer.
Act 19
No. 19. An act relating to licensure of freestanding birth centers.
Until recently, Birthing Centers were not permitted to operate in the state of Vermont unless they were a department of a hospital. With the signing of Act 19 on May 13, 2025, a “Birthing Center” is defined and may be freestanding as of January 1, 2027.
The Village School is seeking midwives/obgyn in the Wantastegok area who want to be a part of a village Birthing Center! Our expertise is infrastructure - sustainable supportive systems - and your expertise is the womb. We want to assist the birth of your birthing center! Please spread the word and get in touch with us if you are a midwife or know a midwife who might be interested. We create systems that are designed to be easily recreated in any village. Whatever you have come up against in the past that has discouraged you from expanding your offerings, we can help.