09/07/2025
Rural hospitals are not delivering as many babies as they used to. That’s led to a return to midwives to help fill the gaps around our region.
That includes Evanston, which is home to a new birth center that opened when the local hospital delivery unit closed. It serves low-risk clients.
“We take on women who are experiencing normal physiological pregnancy,” said midwife Janna Hartzel.
Another birth center opened in Cheyenne in recent years, but is still trying to make the numbers add up.
“We're basically eating $4-5,000 per client,” said co-founder Sarah Morey, referring specifically to those on Medicaid, which doesn’t cover facility fees in the state.
Morey is lobbying to fix this with state lawmakers, many of whom are already looking at midwifery as a way to fill the state’s growing care gaps.
Midwives have flourished more in states such as New Mexico, where there’s robust midwifery education and more than a quarter of births are attended by midwives — twice the average of other states in the region.
Photo credit: Hanna Merzbach
LINK: https://ow.ly/RcUI50WRuQv
