Booth Maternity Center, Pioneer of Family-Centered Birth

When Booth Maternity Center in West Philadelphia adopted its family-centered model, it challenged nearly every assumption American hospitals made about childbirth. Booth offered expectant mothers natural labor options, midwife-led deliveries, and something almost no hospital permitted at the time: family members present in the delivery room. That last practice, now universal, was pioneered here.

Booth also trained midwives and championed close collaboration between midwives and physicians, developing a model that spread nationally. Its approach was studied by others who built birth centers. The center eventually closed, leaving behind a generation of midwives, policies, and practices that quietly transformed how the country gives birth.

What once seemed radical at Booth is now the baseline expectation in maternity wards across the United States.