CREATING ACCESSIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY

What is beso?

Birth Equity Statewide Operations for Birth Centers (beso) exists to provide operational Infrastructure for community-based birth centers in Colorado.

Our Guiding Principles

  • The status quo creates perinatal health inequities, increases maternal morbidity and mortality, and creates longer-term disparities that go beyond physical health. To address inequities we must be, and are committed to, transforming the status quo. We reject “doing things how they’ve always been done” or how we’re told we have to do them. We are committed to leaning into innovation, creativity, and bold solutions.

  • Community birth, along with the midwifery model of care, is an important alternative to medicalized birth with evidence-based positive outcomes, particularly for vulnerable communities. We prioritize safe, accessible, physiological birth that engages and supports birthing people to make the best decisions for them throughout their perinatal experience.

  • Community birthwork must be centered to transform both the status quo and the inequities that are present in perinatal healthcare. Community birthwork is ancestral work, rooted in community, yet still experiences marginalization, stigma, and oppression from the systems that govern and interact with it. This marginalization is rooted in anti-Blackness, colonization, and paternalism. We center and prioritize community birthwork and midwifery while advocating for safe and joyful birth in every setting.

  • Real transformation will occur when impacted communities are central decision-makers in addressing perinatal health inequities. The community doesn’t just lead us; we are the community, and we are leading. We exemplify the midwifery model of care in all decision-making. We are committed to ensuring that midwives, birthworkers, and clients have a seat at the table- specifically Black, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+ communities and people with substance use disorders, people living in rural areas, Medicaid recipients, formerly and currently incarcerated people, and people experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness.

Our Work

beso supports infrastructure for community birth. supported by Elephant Circle, Birth Center Equity and Orchid Capital Collective. Through this network, we are cultivating a learning community, developing a regional strategy to support community birth, and increasing community birth training opportunities.

beso is comprised of a multidisciplinary Steering Committee that’s dedicated to the mission and vision of beso.

About the beso Steering Committee

Following a retreat in Pueblo, Colorado, led by Niambi Echols, 30+ birth workers and community advocates gathered to envision the future of beso. What came from that space was the desire to form a committee of folks to serve as a driving force for beso’s vision - and thus the beso steering committee (besoSC) was born.

While it has evolved and taken on a few different shapes, currently the besoSC is comprised of six members:

  • Pia Long, Co-Chair, Director of Birth Justice Infrastructure at Elephant Circle

  • Tenesha Duncan, Co-Chair, Founder & CEO of Orchid Capital Collective

  • Indra Lusero, Founder & Director of Elephant Circle

  • Heather Prestridge, Certified Professional Midwife and Administrative Director at Seasons Community Birth Center

  • Justina Nazario, Certified Professional Midwife and Founder of Rooted In Midwifery

  • Katherine Riley,

  • Lauren Smith, who is not a member but serves as the Administrative Consultant

The Birth Equity Statewide Operations Steering Committee (besoSC) aims to advance the beso mission by creating equitable structures, governance practices, and the foundation for its governing body. Since our first retreat in July, the steering committee has formed a charter and began to build the foundation needed to create a sustainable birth center model, creating accessible care in the state of Colorado.

Panning for Gold & what it takes: The Triumph of Birth Centers in Colorado

We need funding to support the ramping-up of services across all sites. We also expect additional workforce will be needed to develop the leadership of people of color in an industry marked by low numbers of people of color due to built-in racism.

In 2023, we raised over $500,000 not including almost $25,000 in donations from over 50 small donors. We estimate the total initial fundraising needs to be $4 million for the first stage of development.