CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County plans to loan $2 million to Birthing Beautiful Communities to complete a new birth center in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood, which officials hope will help address persistently high infant mortality rates.

The facility will provide doula- and midwife-led clinical care, along with education and wellness programs designed to improve birth outcomes for Black women and other people of color. The nonprofit expects to support 50 births in its first year.

Anthony Stella, of the county’s Department of Development, said Hough was selected intentionally because of its disproportionately high infant mortality rates. According to the 2023 Child Fatality Report, Cuyahoga County had an infant mortality rate of 8.8 per 1,000 births — among the highest in Ohio. The

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