Labor of Love

Women’s Birth and Wellness Center (WBWC), North Carolina’s first non-profit freestanding birth center, was founded by firebrand Certified Nurse Midwife Maureen Darcey in 1995. Operating in a state regularly cited as one of the most restrictive in the country for midwifery, WBWC has not only persevered, it has become a model for how to run an independent center that maintains both strong relationships with local hospitals and a holistic space for low-risk patients to give birth. In addition to catching babies, the practitioners at WBWC provide prenatal care, sexual health education and screenings, and primary care, with all services inclusive of trans and non-binary patients. In celebration of WBWC’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the Pinhook curates this fundraiser for WBWC’s patient care offerings. The night includes performances by Loamlands, Molly Sarlé, Katharine Whalen, Rissi Palmer, Kamara Thomas, and Emily Frantz of Mandolin Orange. Sylvan Esso, hot off their ten-person tour showcase “WITH,” rounds out the bill with a DJ a set. —Josephine McRobbie