Health

Chicago South Side Birth Center Breaks Ground, Expected to Open Early 2027

A new birth center that aims to provide culturally centered, Black midwife-led care for families on the South Side held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.

Chicago South Side Birth Center, located at 8301 S. South Shore Drive in the South Chicago neighborhood, plans to offer prenatal care, birth services, postpartum care, lactation support, holistic reproductive health care, childbirth education and community wellness programming.

The nonprofit birth center is expected to open in early 2027.

“The Chicago South Side Birth Center has always been about building something families have been asking for, a place where pregnancy and birth and reproductive health care can happen in relationship, in dignity, and close to home,” founder and lead steward Jeanine Valrie Logan said.

Black women in Illinois face the highest risk of pregnancy-related death and are more than twice as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause compared to White women, according to a recent report from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“Black women deserve healthy pregnancies,” said Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who is the Democratic nominee to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin. “Black women deserve safe and healthy deliveries, and Black women deserve to make it home to raise their babies in healthy environments.”

Currently, the South Side has four hospitals offering maternity services, according to the city.

Construction to open the Chicago South Side Birth Center involves the renovation and expansion of an existing building that formerly housed Morning Star Bible Baptist Church. The $7.4 million project received a $3.3 million community development grant from the city, according to the mayor’s office. The grant, announced last year, is being used to cover costs tied to construction, rehabbing efforts and landscaping.

The groundbreaking ceremony also included remarks from Mayor Brandon Johnson, Department of Planning and Development Commissioner Ciere Boatright, Ald. Peter Chico (10th Ward) and philanthropic organization Chicago Beyond founder and CEO Liz Dozier.

“We’re standing in the middle of something that should have always existed,” Dozier said during the ceremony. “It will be a place where families will be seen, truly seen. Where care, culture and dignity are at the very foundation and the roots of where we are standing today.”

Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

---