1st Black-owned birthing center to open on Chicago's South Side by 2025, with help from state funds

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Illinois' only Black-owned birthing center, the Chicago South Side Birthing Center, is set to open in 2025.

The center is meant to be a home for the community, with exam rooms, ultrasound rooms, and even an education center.

While it's made strides in going from dream to reality, it still needs support.

Data shows Black women in Chicago area are six times more likely to die in the first year after childbirth. That kind of data has pushed people like Gov. JB Pritzker to support Jeanine Valrie Logan's birthing center.

"Every woman, no matter her income level, has the right to have a healthy and safe pregnancy," Gov. Pritzker said.

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Over the weekend, Logan opened the center's doors for the first time, for pregnant and postpartum mothers to have space to feel at home.

"This is exactly what I envisioned life should be for us women, very tribal, very village like," said soon-to-be mom of four Jessica Mitchell.

From dancing to reaffirming confidence in their birth stories, Logan said this is the kind of environment she dreamed of having for herself. But she still needs help turning former church pews into birthing rooms.

"Our funding goal is $3.5 million for the construction for the equipment and for the first year for sustainability," she said.

She hopes some of the money comes from the governor's $20 million proposed budget for maternal health.

The birthing center's goal is to open by 2025.