Welcome! 


I am very pleased to introduce this issue of the newsletter because it gives me an opportunity to express my appreciation for the incredible team that has worked hard to make reopening the CHA Birth Center a reality. I am also extremely grateful for the support we’ve received from our elected officials, partners, and community leaders.

At a time when many maternity units and birth centers are struggling to survive, even closing, CHA remains committed to providing maternal health access for our diverse communities. The reopening of the CHA Birth Center means more growing families will have an opportunity to receive the type of personalized and culturally appropriate care they deserve. 

Since birth center care has been shown to reduce maternal mortality rates and improve maternal health disparities, the decision to reopen the CHA Birth Center was an easy one. However, determining exactly how and when was more challenging. We had an aging building with numerous infrastructure concerns and faced post-COVID staffing shortages. The birth center could only reopen when we were confident it would provide safe, high quality care and equitable access for all in the community. It was not an easy process, but seeing the beautifully renovated and safe facility and the extremely professional and compassionate team we have in place has made it all worthwhile. This is the birth center our communities need and deserve.

I hope to see you at the Open House on June 17 and personally thank you for your support.

Assaad Sayah, MD

CEO, Cambridge Health Alliance

The Road to Reopening

With just over a month to go before reopening we are working hard to make sure our team is well trained and ready to take excellent care of our birthing families! Last month we brought you a sample of the extensive training underway, and this month we want to share a few additional highlights. Earlier this month the birth center team spent a weekend undergoing comprehensive training from Grow Midwives, a nationally recognized midwifery/birth center consulting and training firm. A few of the numerous agenda items included quality and safety work such as maternal and newborn transfer drills to the hospital, postpartum care in the birth center, and newborn assessments including cardiac and metabolic screenings. Quality, safety and a positive patient experience will be hallmarks of the CHA Birth Center, along with a commitment to improving maternal health equity, access, and outcomes.

In addition to staff training, finishing touches are being put on the birthing rooms themselves. Bedding and linens have now arrived, and more artwork is due soon to ensure the CHA Birth Center reflects the cultural diversity and vibrancy of our communities. The rooms all feature private bathrooms with beautiful new walk-in showers, and two of the three rooms have luxurious tubs for soaking or birthing.

Community Corner

Our outreach efforts in the community continue! We are working with partners such as La Colaborativa and WIC programs to bring education about the value of midwifery and birth center care to our communities. Our Volunteer Health Advisors and Community Health Workers, highly trusted members of their individual communities, are actively attending community events to address barriers to care and other concerns from our communities. They are explaining, in the group’s native language, that the CHA Birth Center is a place where patients are seen, heard, and can feel safe. They reinforce that the CHA Birth Center is a place birthing people can trust, feel welcome, and be empowered.

Recognizing the need to incorporate patient and community feedback into our outreach and care models, we are implementing Community Circles to ensure we are listening to community members. This is an opportunity to have deeper conversations about the Birth Center and an opportunity to listen to our community members about their experience. Through multilingual education, trusted community partnerships, and ongoing engagement at local events, our team continues working to build awareness about the Birth Center and create stronger connections with community members.

Meet our Midwives


This month we are very pleased to introduce you to another one of our outstanding midwives, Emma Puka-Beals, CNM, who recently celebrated her first anniversary working as a midwife after many years as a birth doula and nurse. A Cambridge native, Emma was taken to CHA as a child when she suffered her first childhood asthma attack. 



Emma attended Mt. Holyoke College, where she majored in Environmental Studies before working in environmental/social/economic justice organizing in the greater Boston area. She was introduced to birth work through a friend and doula, and decided to pursue midwifery while attending her first birth in December 2014. Emma continued to work as a doula in the greater Boston area and briefly, Tegucigalpa, Honduras while taking nursing school prerequisites and attending an accelerated nursing program. After graduating, she applied for nursing positions at CHA with the dream of one day working at the birth center.  

Emma had heard powerful first-hand accounts from friends, neighbors, and other birth workers about birth center care at CHA. Emma said, “My training and experience had taught me that birth is not an inherently medical event, and that birth center midwifery care is effective at supporting what is very often a normal physiologic process. It is also effective at supporting unique emotional, physical, and relational needs of each person choosing this type of care. Whether the outcomes were easy births or births with unexpected complications requiring transfer and hospital intervention, people consistently reported feeling respected, heard, and at the forefront of their care. Birth asks both incredible strength and incredible vulnerability of the people experiencing it, and this is the type of care they deserve.” 

Emma entered the first cohort of CHA’s new graduate nurse residency program in March 2019 as a night shift medical-surgical nurse on 4 West at Cambridge Hospital. A few weeks after their one-year graduation, it was converted into a COVID unit. In the devastating months that followed, Emma said, “I saw how profoundly similar our needs are when we are bringing life into the world and when we are leaving it, and felt the weight of how much the presence and care we receive in these moments matters.”

Emma transferred to CHA’s maternity department, where she worked for five years as a postpartum, nursery, and labor and delivery nurse while completing her midwifery education and clinical rotations through Frontier Nursing University. During this time she worked through her own pregnancy and gave birth to her daughter, who was born at CHA. Emma said, “She was born into the hands of her father with the help of CHA nurses and midwives, who supported me through a labor and birth that felt impossible until I was on the other side of it. I could not be more proud of and grateful to our team, or more honored to be a part of it.”

The CHA midwives look forward to meeting you at the open house!

Questions or comments about this newsletter? We’d love to hear from you! Email us at communications@challiance.org.