This story by Tracy Brannstorm was first published in The Bridge on Jan. 22, 2026.
Vermont is the only state in the Northeast without a freestanding birth center. That could soon change: a team of Vermont midwives is developing the Green Mountain Birth Center and inviting the public to weigh in at an event on Feb. 1.
A state law passed last May cleared the way for freestanding centers, establishing a licensing system and requiring insurers to cover their services. Several of the midwives behind the budding Green Mountain Birth Center were active advocates of that legislation.
The team is currently fundraising $3 million to cover startup costs and the first year of operations. The aim of the project’s first phase is to open a small prenatal and postpartum care practice in Morrisville this year, with estimated operating costs of about $25,000.
They are also searching for a permanent site for the birth center itself, ideally near a hospital that could serve as a transfer partner. Waterbury is among the top locations being considered.
Freestanding birth centers are standalone health care facilities that provide prenatal care, labor and delivery services and postpartum support for people with low-risk pregnancies. Typically led by midwives, they operate outside the hospital setting but maintain relationships with hospitals for transfer if complications arise.
Supporters often point to research indicating that birth centers deliver strong outcomes for uncomplicated pregnancies while also reducing medical interventions, achieving high patient satisfaction while costing less than hospital births.
Midwife Erinn Mandeville, a founding member of the Green Mountain Birth Center, said the model can also offer greater satisfaction in the workplace because it gives practitioners more autonomy. “You’re not beholden to hospital budgets or administrators who don’t understand our vision,” she said.
Mandeville was on staff for five years at Copley Hospital’s birthing center in Morrisville before it was closed last November. “I loved my job at Copley and thought I would retire there,” she said. “But when the hospital announced the unit’s closure, I was like, ‘OK, I guess I’m starting a birth center.’”
She is joined by four other founders — Alison Fischman, Heidi Riendeau, Lindsay Lachant and Mary Lou Kopas — who together bring decades of experience across hospital, birth center and home-based care, with a particular focus on serving rural and underserved communities.
Several of them have long been involved in advocacy that supports birth center licensure — efforts that culminated last May, when lawmakers passed a law creating a statewide licensing system with fewer barriers. Previously, applicants had to demonstrate need through a review that allowed hospitals and other stakeholders to weigh in. The new law exempts freestanding birth centers from that process and requires insurers to cover their services by early 2027.
With the new law in place, the Green Mountain Birth Center organizers formalized their nonprofit, began recruiting volunteers and opened a patient waiting list — all while continuing their hospital and home-based midwifery work.
“So far it’s exciting and it’s daunting,” Mandeville said. “We’re all committed to serving our community, but now we’re having to become administrators, and business people, and marketers at the same time, when I just want to catch babies and help people through menopause or whatever’s going on with them.”
Mandeville said she is most excited about rethinking prenatal care by connecting patients with social services such as Women, Infants and Children care and housing assistance, offering early support through movement and body work that could prevent complications during birth or postpartum, and allowing for longer, more in-depth patient visits. “We really need to broaden our concept of what needs to be supported,” she said.
The Vermont Department of Health is currently finalizing how the state’s new licensing system will operate. And while that’s happening, the Green Mountain Birth Center team will be continuing to plan the center’s next steps.
The event, scheduled for Feb. 1 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Emerge in downtown Montpelier (15 State St.) will be hosted by Amy LePage, a bodyworker and childbirth educator. The event is an opportunity to learn about the center’s plans, meet the founders, find out how to get involved and is open to the wider community, LePage said. “Not just people who are in this realm and time of their life of being pregnant, but really anyone interested in investing in family health and community care in Vermont.”
“We really want it to be a conversation,” she added. LePage will be offering a donation-based class for stress relief and better sleep following the event, from 4:40 to 6 p.m., with all proceeds going to the Green Mountain Birth Center.
