Ruth Lubic co-founded two legally sanctioned, freestanding birth centers in New York City: the Childbearing Center, which served middle-class families of Upper East Side Manhattan, and the Morris Heights Childbearing Center, which served the lower-income families of the South Bronx.
24 Facts About Ruth Lubic
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Ruth Lubic utilized the $375,000 grant to found her third birth center, the Family Health and Birth Center in the collaborative of the Developing Families Center in Washington, DC, where the maternal and infant mortality rates were the highest in the United States.
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Ruth Lubic has been widely recognized for her work as a nurse-midwife.
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Ruth Lubic was the 1983 recipient of the Hattie Hemschemeyer Award from the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the 2001 recipient of the Gustav O Lienhard Award from the National Academy of Medicine, and one of the 2001 Living Legend honorees from the American Academy of Nursing.
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Ruth Lubic is currently Founder and President Emerita of the Developing Families Center and Founder of the Family Health and Birth Center.
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Ruth Lubic was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania to John Russell Watson and Lillian Watson and raised as the second of two daughters.
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John was a third-generation pharmacist who owned and managed Watson's Drug Store alongside his wife, and Ruth Lubic spent much of her childhood there assisting with everyday duties and chores.
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At age 25, Ruth Lubic began her education and training in a diploma nursing program in 1952 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was elected student body president.
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Shortly after her marriage, Ruth Lubic graduated with her RN diploma and was recognized as the recipient of the Letitia White Award for Highest Academic Average and the Florence Nightingale Medal for Excellence in Nursing Practice.
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Ruth Lubic continued her education concurrently through courses at Hunter College to work towards a bachelor's degree in nursing, which she pursued part-time for three years before resuming her education full-time at Teachers College, Columbia University.
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Ruth Lubic's obstetrician, Edward Cullee Mann, permitted Lubic's husband to remain in the labor-delivery room for the duration of her labor and birth; Mann gave both Lubic and her husband time to bond with the newborn immediately after the delivery without any healthcare staff present.
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Mann later encouraged Ruth Lubic to pursue a career as a nurse-midwife through the midwifery training program at Maternity Center Association.
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In 1963, Ruth Lubic accepted a position with the MCA and worked as a parent educator and counselor until 1967.
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Ruth Lubic believed that more autonomous, family-centered maternity care and services provided by nurse-midwives could better meet the needs of low-risk expectant individuals and their families.
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Ruth Lubic advocated for the role of nurse-midwives as providers of prenatal care, birth, and postpartum care and believed that freestanding birth centers served as a safe, comprehensive, and less costly option to both hospital births and home births.
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In 1971, Ruth Lubic worked with the MCA, nurse-midwife Kitty Ernst, and obstetrician John Franklin to establish Booth Maternity Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was previously known as the Booth Maternity Hospital.
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Ruth Lubic continued her collaboration with the MCA and Ernst to create refresher-course, nurse-midwifery programs at Booth, the University of Mississippi, and the SUNY Downstate Medical Center.
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Ruth Lubic was the only woman and the only nurse in the delegation team.
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Ruth Lubic herself became a central recipient of personal and professional criticism due to her advocacy for nurse-midwife-managed birth centers.
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In 1983, Ruth Lubic collaborated again with Ernst to found the National Association of Childbearing Centers, previously the Cooperative Birth Center Network and now known as the American Association of Birth Centers.
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Ruth Lubic learned that providing safe and effective maternity care to low-income communities could help empower these families by providing the resources and access to services that would allow pregnant individuals to have greater agency in their health and maternity care.
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Ruth Lubic utilized the grant to start and fund work on her third freestanding birth center in 1994.
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Ruth Lubic moved to Washington, DC, in 1994 to begin her work in Ward 5, where the maternal and infant mortality rates were the highest in the United States.
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Ruth Lubic currently serves as founder and president emerita of the Developing Families Center and Founder of the Family Health and Birth Center.