Judge blocks AL Department of Health birth center regulations

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - Birthing centers can now open in Alabama.

Over the weekend, a Montgomery County judge stopped new regulations for the facilities from going into effect. A group of midwives and doctors filed a lawsuit in August after the Alabama Department of Public Health adopted regulations for birth centers.

The Alabama ACLU says the court stopped a “dangerous de facto ban” on birth centers. There are two centers now open, and they hope that more will follow.

Kate Petty works with the Alabama Birth Coalition.

“My second daughter passed away three hours after birth because of all the interventions that they pushed on me that I was saying no to. And so for me, this saves lives,” said Petty.

She along with other mothers have experienced the loss of a child at birth and gone to great lengths to birth safely.

“In 2017, I bought a camper to birth my son with a midwife over the state lines,” Petty said.

Petty says this is why birth centers are needed. These are places that offer prenatal care and birthing services for home births or replace hospital births if there is a lack of maternal care available. Proposed regulations from the Alabama Department of Health posed a threat to their operations.

“Most of the states that have operating birth centers have nothing like what they were demanding,” said Petty. “Midwives could run birth centers on their own.”

The regulations from the Alabama Department of Public Health required birthing centers to be located within 30 minutes of a hospital. Nonhospital-affiliated birth centers also had to apply for licenses. Opponents say these regulations were impossible to follow and likely created by a misunderstanding of the midwifery community.

“These are not women just out there trying to make you birth your baby without medical interventions. These are people who take their jobs seriously. And if they think that there’s anything that they’re worried about or concerned about, they’re not going to continue with your care,” said Petty. “They’re going to say, ‘hey, I think this is a red flag, and we might need to send you to an OB.’”

The ban on the regulations will be in place until a final judgment or further orders from the court.

The Alabama Department of Public Health will not comment on their plan to appeal this case. The regulations were set to take effect on Oct. 15.

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