News & Events
A visit from Congresswoman Roybal-Allard
A Tour of the DC Developing Families Center
Thank you to Congresswoman Roybal-Allard
Washington, Jun 28 - Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard visited the DC Developing Families Center to learn more about how birth centers can improve childbirth outcomes for mothers and babies while significantly lowering maternity costs.
The DC Developing Families Center (DCDFC) promotes the empowerment of low-income families through the collaboration of three nonprofit service providers: the Family Health and Birth Center, the Healthy Babies Project, and Nation's Capital Child and Family Development.
A unique umbrella organization, DCDFC is the first collaboration model of its kind to offer continuous, uninterrupted care for women and their families during the important childbearing and early child-rearing years.
Services include health checkups for women, children, and teens; immunizations; pregnancy testing; prenatal care and education; a free-standing, homelike birth center; early childhood development services; social service assistance; job training; and continuing education.
All services are provided under one roof in a personalized setting that is easily accessible to the low-income communities of Carver Terrace and Trinidad/Ivy City in northeast Washington, DC.
Pictured left to right outside of the center are: Cynthia Flynn, CNM, PhD–General Director of the Family Health and Birth Center; Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34); and Ruth Lubig, CNM, EdD–Founder of the DC Developing Families Center.
FHBC Welcomes a New General Director!
NEWS RELEASE: JANUARY 14, 2010
CYNTHIA BULLOCK FLYNN, CNM, Ph.D NAMED GENERAL DIRECTOR OF FHBC
Washington, DC The District of Columbia's only freestanding birth center, The Family Health and Birth Center (FHBC) proudly announced today that Cynthia Flynn, CNM, Ph.D has been chosen as its new General Director. Dr. Flynn will assume her new position with the FHBC at its facility located at 801 17th Street NE on Monday, January 18, 2010.
Dr. Flynn comes to the position well qualified to lead the groundbreaking FHBC, which is located in northeast DC. Through its midwifery model of care, the FHBC has significantly reduced preterm birth and low birth-weight infants. Dr. Flynn is a nurse-midwife and most recently an Associate Professor of Nursing at Seattle University. There she not only taught, but remained in full scope clinical midwifery practice at Valley Medical Center. She also owned the Columbia Birth Center, which she established and operated for eight years, a licensed and accredited center, located in Kennewick, Washington. Dr. Flynn has also had international experience in Jamaica, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Dr. Flynn is a 1996 nurse-midwifery graduate of Yale University. Prior to her entry into the health care field, she had a distinguished career as a Doctor of Sociology, earned in 1974 at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she focused on migration and social change. She was a tenured Associate Professor of Sociology and research associate at the University of Kansas from 1975 to 1979. Dr. Flynn also managed the Kitsap District External Delivery Systems of the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound prior to her entry into nurse-midwifery. From 2007-2009, Dr. Flynn served as the President of the American Association of Birth Centers.
Dr. Flynn succeeds Ruth Watson Lubic, CNM, Ed.D, the nurse-midwife/anthropologist who founded the FHBC. Dr. Lubic served as FHBC Interim General Director during 2009 and will continue to be involved with the organization, particularly in the areas of development and replication, in her capacity as Chair Emerita. Dr. Lubic also founded the collaborative lead organization, the Developing Families Center (DFC). Through its three partners -- FHBC, the Healthy Babies Project and the United Planning Organization--, the DFC offers a continuum of care, including case management and early childhood development as well as maternity and family health care.
Making Mothers: An FHBC-Eidolon Films Independent Film
In 2008 FHBC worked with filmmakers Ben Crosbie and Tessa Moran of Eidolon Films to produce a film about the Birth Center and the experience of our midwives and patients. The result is a beautiful film entitled “Making Mothers”. The film captures the lives of two of our staff as they guide women during their transition to motherhood. Midwife Lisa uncles, our Clinical Director, strives to provide the peaceful and beautiful home birth experience she had herself. Joan Brickhouse, a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, imparts her experience as a teen mom and former birth center client. Below is a five minute synopsis of the film, which offers a view of the Birth Center and the loving care we offer. For more information on the filmmakers, please visit them at their website, http://www.eidolonfilms.com.
FHBC Featured on the CBS Evening News
The Family Health and Birth Center was recently featured on the CBS Evening News in a piece entitled “Beating the Odds”. The piece explores FHBC ’s phenomenal success in reducing preterm birth and other health disparities in our community. Please click here to view the 3-minute piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4428535n.