Overview
- A Black midwife-led nonprofit broke ground on the Chicago South Side Birth Center in South Chicago with a $3.3 million city grant.
- The center will convert a former church at 8301 S. South Shore Drive into three birthing suites and a reproductive health clinic.
- Organizers describe the facility as the South Side’s first dedicated birth center and Illinois’ first nonprofit birth center.
- The team plans an early 2027 opening with capacity for about 225 births and on-site prenatal, postpartum, lactation and reproductive care.
- The South Side has only four hospitals with maternity wards, which backers say leaves a gap this center will fill as Black mothers face higher risks.