Birth Care & Family Health Services

Birth Care is an independent birth and women's health care center specializing in midwifery care for women of all ages. We promote gentle, family-centered childbirth, and support a woman's inherent power to give birth naturally and with minimal intervention. Our mission is to provide safe, sensitive midwifery care to families of all social, religious, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Certified nurse midwives offer comprehensive health care for women by exclusively female practitioners. Services include prenatal care, labor and delivery at our birth center in Quarryville, at home, or at Ephrata Community Hospital. We also offer well woman gynecological care, family planning, childbirth classes, and free annual pap smears and mammograms for qualifying women through the Healthywoman 50+ program. Birth Care is a non-profit corporation, with a volunteer, community based Board of Directors. We accept most major insurance plans, Medicaid, and offer discounts and payment plans to uninsured clients.

The birth center was established in 1978 as the private practice of Rita Rhoads, CNM. It was the first independent birth center in Pennsylvania and one of the first ten in the nation. In 1993, the practice was incorporated as Birth Care & Family Health Services, a non-profit agency. Ms. Rhoads retired from practice in 2001, having received numerous awards for her pioneering contributions to maternal-child health. The agency is directed by a volunteer community based Board of Directors.