Lifecycle WomanCare in Bryn Mawr, PA is featured in this month’s edition of Noteworthy. Julie Cristol, Clinical Director, sat down to talk with CABC Executive Director Michele DeAngelo at the AABC Birth Institute. Click here to read the full interview.
Lifecycle WomanCare has served the greater Philadelphia area for over 40 years. The founder, interested in opening a home birth practice, happened to talk with Kitty Ernst who expressed the need for a birth center. They will be welcoming their 13,000th baby in 2020! We congratulate them on this amazing achievement.
Midwives deliver clients at both the birth center and at Bryn Mawr Hospital. The biggest challenges they face are lack of space and physician relationships. A variety of services are offered to women throughout their lives, from gynecologic care to menopausal care, and everything in-between. They are actively engaged in increasing the diversity of the staff and clinicians, and hope to make birth center birth more accessible to women in the surrounding community. About 30% of clients come from Philadelphia, 30% from nearby Delaware County, and 40% are suburban. State Medicaid, private insurance, and self-pay clients are accepted.
Lifecycle WomanCare has been CABC-accredited for over 20 years, since 1993. When asked why it is important to be CABC-accredited, Julie said they can’t imagine NOT being accredited. It is great for checks and balances. Accreditation also helps with insurance company negotiations and with the public. They encourage new birth centers to become familiar with the CABC Indicators prior to opening because that will start them out on the right foot. They hope to replicate in the future to offer their services to more women.