KBIA

Columbia Community Birth Center Closing at End of Year COLUMBIA, MO (KBIA) - Women seeking midwives to assist them in childbirth can no longer rely on a local Birth Center. KBIA's Daniel Trivinos has more.


The Columbia Community Birth Center recently announced it plans to close at the end of the year. This comes after almost three years of operation and laboring over the legalization of midwifery in Missouri. Efforts to find a new physician to replace the former medical director Elizabeth Allemann have come up empty. The CCBC says they could not fill holes in the staffing with physicians willing to participate in insurance contracts. Alleman says the challenge is rooted in recognition.

"Physicians seem to own the ability to bill insurance. So certified professional midwives are not recognized by insurance companies in the middle of the state. In some of the rural outlying areas they've been given exemptions."

The CCBC says the closing is due to both the lack of physicians on staff and the political climate. The CCBC and Allemann fought for the legalization of midwifery in 2007. Allemann says the law gives a woman the option of using a certified professional midwife without a certified physician.

Allemann plans to spend more time with her family and her practice of acupuncture. Alleman says women will receive similar pre-natal care where the midwife comes to the home in preparation for childbirth.

"Right now the plan is for the midwives who've been providing excellent care through the Columbia Community Birth Center to have a homebirth practice. So they would be offering women important options in out of hospital births."

The CCBC says they hope to see a birth center resurrection in time and when the political climate allows for fewer restrictions.
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