Parents have already taken home four healthy babies delivered at a new Lawrence birth center, Certified Nurse-Midwife Jodie Mayfield said. The center will host a family opening event for the community to stop by and take a peek.

The free, public open house — complete with music, refreshments and games featuring inflatable birth tubs — will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 1 at The Grove Family Center, 515 Rockledge Road.

Lawrence Birth & Wellness is a pregnancy and birth center housed within the new Grove facility, offering care from family planning to annual exams, STD screening and menopause management. Founder Mayfield, Certified Personal Midwife Lilly Mason, and their team are also giving birthing people a central location to find prenatal, labor, birth and postpartum services.

Mayfield said there’s a national crisis of birth centers closing.

Lawrence Birth & Wellness is the only center of its kind in Lawrence. The New Birth Company in Overland Park closed its doors in September 2024 because of funding issues, and Immanuel Birth Co. in Topeka transitioned to home births in September 2025.

In January, The Grove Family Center was still under construction. Mason said the last many months have been filled with regulatory approvals and admin work. They got the go-ahead to open the birth center portion on Sept. 15.

Mason said a birth center in Lawrence didn’t seem possible a decade ago, but regulations have started changing. For example, CNMs like Mayfield can now run independent practices. Previously, they could only practice with a doctor as a supervisor.

“I am the eternal optimist, but I think that there’s potential for even more change to keep happening,” Mason said.

She said the center’s opening feels like a birth of its own — now, they have the task of helping it grow up.

Lawrence Birth & Wellness hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday night to show off its two birth rooms and prenatal consultation room where pregnant people can get ultrasounds.

Mayfield said they have an in-house sonographer who can do 3D and 4D ultrasounds. The images are sent to a maternal-fetal medicine doctor for review.

Alongside the birthing center, Mason is developing the broader family support services that will exist under the Grove Family Center. An external group called Thrive Together Doulas currently hosts birth classes and mom groups at the center. She said the Grove website is forthcoming.

A different model for giving birth

Mayfield and Mason said a birth center offers a holistic experience that you might not see in a hospital setting, such as more postpartum care. For example, center staff will see a postpartum birthing person a day or two after they’re discharged.

“You could be sent home from the hospital, and no one sees you for six weeks sometimes,” she said.

At the center, clients have midwives’ direct phone numbers, and care providers might even do home visits.

Among staff, the birth center has two certified nurse midwives, plus two certified personal midwives to serve as birth assistants. The team is accepting 12 due dates per month, equaling out to about three births per week. Mayfield said that roster ensures there’s room for all clients to give birth at the center, unless they choose otherwise.

Lawrence Birth & Wellness also has a partnership with the Stormont Vail hospital in Topeka that allows Mayfield to transfer a perinatal person and still conduct the delivery.

The center can transfer clients to emergency rooms at any area hospital, including LMH Health. However, Mayfield and Mason said such transfers are rare for birth centers. Lawrence Birth & Wellness takes low-risk pregnancies and staff is equipped to handle most emergencies.

Mayfield said they’re doing their best to keep services affordable for clients.

In a hospital setting, she said out-of-pocket costs hover around $14,000 before add-ons like epidurals or a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit. Home births in the metro area range from $5,000 to $7,000.

Care at Lawrence Birth & Wellness — including prenatal, perinatal and postpartum services — totals $6,500.

“A lot of people use us for that reason,” Mayfield said. “We have a lot of Amish clients or people that don’t usually seek mainstream care and have cash pay only, and I think it’s definitely a very valuable resource for people.”

The center accepts Blue Cross, Blue Shield and Aetna, but clients can work directly with an out-of-network biller to get money back from their insurance. Mayfield said reimbursements from other insurance companies and Medicaid are unfortunately not enough to keep the doors open. 

“As a small business, we have no other funding. We just completely rely on the — literally what we get paid from people or insurance,” she said. “There’s no federal funding, state funding for us.”

Mayfield said they’ll have to raise their rates in 2027, so anyone interested should join before the new year. They’re currently taking more clients, but they expect to fill up as they deliver current clients’ future children.

Contact the team via email at [email protected] or call 785-856-0017.

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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].

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