After some setbacks, the Philadelphia Midwife Collective birth center is slated to come to the Germantown neighborhood, moving from its proposed original location. 

“We’re really excited and things are moving slowly because we’re busy catching babies!” said Stephanie Brown, the PMC’s board chair and their in-house lactation consultant. “When you don’t hear from us, it’s because we’re busy working on it.”

The Philadelphia Midwife Collective (PMC) plans to open their birth center at 245 E. Johnson Street, but are still fundraising to start construction to renovate a large house they have purchased. 

After their meeting in September, PMC got approval from East Mount Airy Neighbors for changing the zoning of the newest location. Then last month, they got the official go-ahead from the Zoning Board of Adjustment to use the house as a group health practice. 

Brown says they are currently in lease negotiations for the house, which has over a half acre of land, a garage, seven bedrooms, and according to nearby neighbors, used to have horses living on the property. PMC emphasized that the house needs some major renovations, which would have been the case no matter what anyone used it for, and they will be trying to restore and preserve the house, while also adapting it for the reuse of a fully functional birth center. 

More fundraising needs to take place before they begin construction though, says Brown, and projected costs are at least half a million dollars or more. They estimate the build out will take at least four to six months and they hope to start next summer. The collective has already talked to contractors about maintaining the existing historical architecture along with some additions that go along with the safety and use of the building for a group health practice.

You can go to the Philadelphia Midwife Collective’s GoFundMe campaign where they are raising money for the center.