By At 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day, Jessica Knight and her husband were lying in bed when they received an email from the Long Beach Birth Center, where she had started receiving care for her pregnancy.
“I grabbed my phone to set an alarm for the next day because I had a prenatal appointment,” Knight said. “I opened the email, and it was about [the center’s] closure. I was just in shock and so confused.”
The email, sent by owner Meredith Bowling, announced the center’s permanent and immediate closure, citing “circumstances entirely beyond our control.”
The email apologized for the “disruption and disappointment” and assured recipients that the center would contact them about reimbursement.
“We tried looking things up, and everything had disappeared. The website, the social media and we had no access to the patient portal,” Knight said.
Birth centers rapidly disappear
Birth center closures have become a common sight in California, where half the state’s birth centers have closed since 2020, according to CalMatters.
California’s expensive and strict parameters for obtaining a license have contributed to closures across the state.
While the shutdown of birth centers in California may not be a surprise, the closure of the Long Beach Birth Center certainly was to clients who paid deposits for services until a week before it closed.
Belmont resident Shaina Berry and her husband were among those clients, having paid a $2,000 deposit on Dec. 20, only 12 days before the center closed.
“It was obviously really disappointing,” Berry said. “I just instantly had a feeling that they had gone out of business and that we’re going to have a hard time getting our money back.”
The fall-out
According to former clients, the birth center’s website and social media pages, including the patient portal containing medical records, were taken down simultaneously with the email on Jan. 1.
According to the Medical Board of California, healthcare providers must give notice, assist patients in obtaining care from another physician and provide access to medical records when closing.
“None of that was given to us,” Knight, who had paid over $8,000 for services in full, said. “[Bowling] didn’t ensure we were getting care through another provider.”
Left with no response to emails or phone calls, the women took to social media to find others, connecting on Reddit and Yelp.
“Seeing all these other girls, I was like, ‘OK, we’re not dumb,’” Berry said. “Even though it was for a very short amount of time, I just had this vision of having a supportive place to have that birth. That’s the part that’s most disappointing.”
As more clients began to connect and compare experiences, they began to hear from midwives formerly employed at the birth center who were also given no warning.
Weeks of bouncing checks
Nalah Morrow moved her family from Washington, D.C., to Long Beach after accepting a job as a midwife at the birth center in October 2024. Newly pregnant, she also had hopes of delivering at the center.
Morrow recalled hearing from other midwives that their checks were bounced due to insufficient funds.
One of those midwives included Ray Webber, who had worked at the center for two years.
“There was a large part of the business I didn’t see,” Webber said. “I didn’t have the sense that the business was doing awesome because we didn’t have a lot of clients. But we were looking to hire a whole new salaried midwife…I had no idea we would hire somebody we had no way of paying.”
Morrow and Webber, along with the two other midwives employed at the center, wrote a letter on Dec. 22 demanding their paychecks after several unsuccessful attempts at chasing their checks.
On Dec. 27, Bowling laid off both Marrow and Webber, telling them the birth center was closing.
“She said, ‘We’re going to stay open until February. But we have to lay you off, and I can’t pay you today,’ and withheld two of my paychecks,” Webber said.
Little optimism left
A handful of former clients have filed small claims lawsuits against Bowling, hoping to get their money back through the legal system.
A court proceeding on Feb. 4, revealed Bowling was filing for bankruptcy.
“It was sad and frustrating. I had the feeling they were just going to hide behind bankruptcy and it would mean all of us are just out of luck,” said Nicole McFeely, who paid over $8,000 for full services. “It feels like there’s going to be no real recourse for her actions.”
As for the employees, both Webber and Morrow have filed with the California Labor Commission, hoping to get their owed paychecks. For now, both are receiving unemployment.
“I’m the primary income earner in my household. How am I going to feed my family?” Morrow said. “Meredith had me working for free, as a pregnant Black midwife, knowing she wasn’t going to be able to pay me.”
Webber shared similar concerns, saying their focus has been figuring out how to support themselves.
“How am I going to pay my bills, pay my rent?” they said. “The larger midwife community in Long Beach and L.A. have really shown up for me. It’s been really important to have the support that’s been offered.”
Bowling did not respond to the Long Beach Current’s requests for comment and is still in the process of filing for bankruptcy.
