Jennie Joseph's Winter Garden Birthing Center Expands

Neonatal units? Routine Cesarean sections? Hectic Labor and Delivery floors? When did birth become an illness? Long before institutionalized deliveries, babies were delivered at home, women supported women and entire families were considered the central focus for the beginning of each new life. Currently two-thirds of the world’s babies are delivered by midwives. Not so in the USA, where approximately only 8 – 10 % are delivered that way. The midwifery model of care incorporates all aspects of care - physical, spiritual, emotional and social - and as such has been shown to increase satisfaction, reduce interventions and improve perinatal outcomes.

Midwives can provide care to low-risk women in hospitals, birthing centers or at home. The serious lack of birthing choices for American women coupled with outcomes sometimes worse than other third-world countries prompted Jennie Joseph to create a system that increases and improves access to the kind of care that women and families say they want. The JJ Way ©, named after Jennie Joseph, is a model that can be easily emulated and duplicated, that delivers optimal maternity care and that focuses on bonding, education, empowerment and respect. Joseph has incorporated her JJ Way © methods into her midwifery practice over the last ten years, and has seen such outstanding birth outcomes that a research study¹ is currently underway to discover ‘the secret’ of her success.

Jennie Joseph was born and raised in the UK when her parents emigrated from Barbados in the 1950's. "I knew I was called to be a midwife from the age of sixteen, and I also knew I was going to make a difference in women’s lives", she says. Licensed in 1981 and having practiced in London hospitals (where midwifery care is the gold standard) for years before coming to Florida in 1989 Joseph has the garnered the experience needed to support her unique perspective. In 1998 she formed Commonsense Childbirth Inc.², a federal non-profit corporation to provide midwifery services to uninsured and underinsured women. As part of her mission to bring the opportunity of a healthy baby to all women, Jennie, has had to expand her birthing facilities in Winter Garden to support her growing practice. As with every other area of healthcare, Central Florida is struggling to accommodate the prenatal and delivery needs of a booming region. The Birth Place stands ready to serve any and all women who have a need. For more information call 407 656 6938 or go to www.thebirthplace.org

¹ Study evaluation by Health Council of East Central Florida (Dr. van Caulil) sponsored by Winter Park Health Foundation 2006- 2007

² Commonsense Childbirth Inc., our_non_profit_program