

We are excited to announce the opening of Dr. Poppy’s birth center, Blooms Birth & Holistic Health! Blooms Birth has been embedded in the heart of Dr. Poppy for years. Ten years ago she attended a “How to Open a Birth Center” workshop in Washington DC where she also toured an inner city birth center that was a huge asset to the community by providing a safe place to give birth as well as educational resources. Dr. Poppy has worked with midwives since 1999 & has watched the problems with the maternity system when birth is over-medicalized, including with her own births. She has been upset by the maternal mortality rate which is rising in the US and outraged that it is three times higher for Black and Native women. She has coined the term Functional Obstetrics to reflect a root cause, holistic approach to infertility, pregnancy loss, prenatal/birth/postpartum care and women’s health. She has always been pro-life and understands that until we meet the needs of pregnant women, we are not doing all we can. To this end, she founded Woman to Woman Prenatal Care, a budding non-profit Free Prenatal Clinic to provide prenatal care, vitamins, ultrasounds and lab work to pregnant women in need. It is her desire that these women as well as all women who desire a different approach would be able to deliver their babies in a calming, welcoming and safe environment feeling fully educated and supported by skilled birth workers. The goal of Blooms Birth is to grow relationships with the community by providing valuable education, removing the fear associated with pregnancy and childbirth, along with decreasing disparities in pregnancy outcomes. Blooms & Dr. Poppy deeply know that pregnancy is not an illness and low intervention birth is not a medical procedure; they are normal functions of female physiology and we will fight to keep it that way! Dr. Poppy has always valued the personal touch of midwives and embraced the Midwifery Model of Care; more time, more attention, and great health care. Low risk women delivering in birthing centers have the same outcomes as low risk women with minimal interventions who deliver in the hospital.