She's trying to open a birth center near a maternity desert. It's not easy

Standing in front of an empty lot one afternoon in the Georgia heat, Katie Chubb gestures to the place where she's been trying to open a birth center for six years.

"We'd have parking along the road," she says, describing her vision for a place that would offer a more home-like alternative to a hospital birth.

Chubb is a community organizer in a state with some of the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality in the country. She says a birth center is badly needed here — Augusta, Ga., is surrounded by maternal health care deserts, where pregnancy care can be difficult to find and few alternatives exist outside of hospitals.

Her vision is for a freestanding clinic that employs mostly midwives and works in partnership with obstetricians.

But despite widespread community support and even offers of investment, Chubb has encountered obstacle after obstacle to her mission to offer more safe birth options for women.

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/07/27/nx-s1-5479176/birth-center-hospital-pregnancy

All because hospitals are putting their profits over patient needs! This is kind of similar to what I was going through when I wanted to become a midwife and the OBs were blocking midwives.