Losing an Overland Park natural birth center

Kansas City Today

Natural birth centers that aren’t affiliated with hospitals are becoming more popular, but patients across the Kansas City area are left with few options after a local center closed. Plus: Kernza is a relatively new grain with a budding future as a sustainable crop, but it's struggling to find a market.

Women in Kansas and Missouri have fewer options on where to give birth, especially if they’re looking to give birth holistically, after a natural birthing center in Overland Park, Kansas, closed. As Bek Shackelford-Nwanganga of the Kansas News Service reports, the closure worsens the existing shortage of birth care.

The grain Kernza is championed by many researchers as climate-friendly. It’s a perennial crop, meaning it stays in the ground year-round, unlike corn or soybeans. But there’s not much of a market for Kernza, at least not yet. As the Ag & Water Desk’s Eric Schmid reports, small breweries are one outlet for Kernza in the Midwest.

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