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The Northland Birth Network and it's members offer a variety of events, classes, and groups for families.
Today, NBN is the premiere go-to organization and website for birth professionals and consumers
receive support, education, and evidence-based information about normal, natural birth.
We reach out to families throughout northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin,
as well as serving the Duluth-Superior area.
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Back in 2002, we started out as a chapter of the Minnesota Childbirth
Collective-one of five out-state chapters that worked under the umbrella
of this fabulous doula organization founded in the early 1990s. We started
holding monthly Parent Topic Nights, and occasionally sponsored a class
or workshop. Our membership was almost all doulas, and our work
primarily focused on doulas.
We also sponsored the Duluth premiere of "The Business of Being Born,"
two years' performances of the play, "Birth," and multiple birth doula training workshops.
By 2008, our membership was quite varied. Instead of an organization of doulas, we had
become an organization of doulas, midwives, physicians, chiropractors, lactation consultants,
therapists, and parents. It was time for us to become our own entity!
With the help of two generous grants from Lamaze International, we started a non-profit in
Duluth, put up a website, printed some literature, and began hosting and co-sponsoring a
twice-annual Birth & Baby Fair.
We are committed to supporting CIMS, the Coalition for Improving Maternity Services, whose
mission is to promote a wellness model of maternity care that will improve birth outcomes and
substantially reduce costs. This evidence-based mother, baby, and family-friendly model
focuses on prevention and wellness as the alternatives to high-cost screening, diagnosis,
and treatment programs. CIMS is successfully working at a national and international level
to change maternity and obstetric care. CIMS is the author and certifying agency for the
Mother-Friendly Birth Initiative.
We are also members of the Minnesota Better Birth Coalition, which organizes public support
for legislation that will remove barriers to evidence-based, woman- and family-centered
maternity care at both the state and national level.
We are a registered non-profit, with bylaws and articles of incorporation, both of which are
available upon request. Our monthly member meetings are held the first Thursday of each month,
at 5:30pm, in the Fireside Room of Peace Church, in Duluth.
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