A bill establishing freestanding birthing centers in Kentucky passed the Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee on Tuesday.
Introduced by northern Kentucky freshman Senator Shelley Funke Frommeyer (R-Alexandria), Senate Bill 67 would open freestanding birthing centers in Kentucky and allow the facilities to operate around the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) requirements.
“We haven’t had any of these facilities and Kentucky open since the late 1980s, so it seems like it’s something new that we’re talking about because we haven’t had it so long,” Funke Frommeyer said, noting that Kentucky is only one of eight states that don’t offer freestanding birthing centers.
A freestanding birthing center is a “home-like” healthcare facility separate from a hospital that uses midwifery and a wellness model.
Meredith Strayhorn, a Campbell County resident, senior student, and certified professional midwife, expressed concern over what she called the “medical, industrial complex.”
She said mothers are two to four times more likely to die in childbirth at hospitals due to “structural and systemic factors like racism, implicit bias, and access, lack of access to quality health care and also poverty.”
“My concern today is about the lack of access to choices and high-quality models as a part of the care,” Strayhorn said.
Strayhorn presented evidence that in 2022, Kentucky ranked in the top 10 among all states, with 34% of births resulting in Cesarean (C-section), leading to maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity.
“We do know that Kentucky currently has poor maternal mortality outcomes and most of which are preventable, and that is something that we should be working on as a state to improve those outcomes,” said Christy Peterson, a nurse practitioner, and certified nurse midwife.
But, Sen. Donald Douglas (R-Nicholasville) said that the healthcare system in Kentucky works well, and he expressed concern that the bill would reduce c-sections and that he doesn’t see it improving patient outcomes.
“I don’t see it as a competition issue; I see this as a patient care issue,” Douglas said while providing one of the two “no” votes on the committee.
The bill would also move around the state’s Certificate of Need requirements. A certificate of need is required under Kentucky law for healthcare providers to open up a new facility, acquire major medical equipment, make substantial changes to a facility or project, or “Alter a geographical area or alter a specific location which has been designated on a certificate of need or license.”
In Northern Kentucky, the sole holder of the region’s certificate of need is St. Elizabeth Healthcare, which merged with St. Luke in the early 2000s.
In a letter to the licensing and occupations committee, Dolores J. Polito, the vice president of the Kentucky Affiliate of the American College of Nurse Midwives, said that women in Kentucky must leave the state for these services because of the restriction of the CON process.
“Currently, FSBC’s do not exist in Kentucky in great part due to the restriction of the CON process,” Polito wrote. “A woman and family in KY desiring birth center care must leave the state to obtain these services.”
The bill will now head to the Senate floor where it might be considered for a vote.