At Premier Birth Center in Chantilly, Virginia, owner Dr. Emily DeRocco, is quietly working on something bigger than any single delivery: guiding her center through the process of earning Baby-Friendly designation—and using that journey to inspire local hospitals and other birth centers to do the same.
In addition to running the birth center, Dr. Emily (as she is known) is a practicing pediatric and prenatal chiropractor, as well as the mother of six children. Having built her career caring for pregnant people, newborns, and children, she sees Baby-Friendly designation as a way for the birth center to get formally recognized and share how they have always cared for patients.
“It’s a no-brainer,” she says. “We should have this. It’s just a way to make it publicly known that we always do these things.”
From Chiropractic Care to Birth Center Leadership
Dr. Emily’s commitment to breastfeeding and family-centered care began long before she owned the birth center. Earlier in her career when she lived in Kansas, she served on a local breastfeeding coalition and attended La Leche League meetings after the birth of her first child. That’s where she first encountered the concept of Baby-Friendly.
Her coalition partnered with the Kansas Breastfeeding Coalition to encourage local hospitals to pursue the designation. Even then, she saw Baby-Friendly as a powerful lever for improving breastfeeding support and early-life health outcomes.
Years later, she relocated to Virginia at the urging of a close friend from chiropractic college who had discovered the birth center there. Dr. Emily practiced chiropractic care in a room at the center, then outgrew that space, then a larger one, and eventually moved into her own office next door.
In 2024, the owner of the birth center called her with a simple question: “Would you like to buy a birth center?” Emily’s respond was immediate: “Yes, yes I would.”
Since taking charge of the center, Emily has been determined to “take our game up a notch” and position the center as a model for truly baby- and family-centered care. A big piece of that is the center’s pursuit of Baby-Friendly designation.
An Environment Already Aligned with Baby-Friendly
The center attends to roughly 150–200 births each year and is in a period of growth. Its midwives provide birth center and home births, and Dr. Emily is working to add certified nurse midwives who can also attend hospital births, creating a continuum from home to hospital.
Several structural features of the center already closely align with Baby-Friendly standards:
- No separation of mother and baby: There is no nursery, and families do not stay overnight. Parents call the on-call midwife, come in for labor and birth, and typically go home about four hours after delivery. The baby stays with the family at all times.
- Golden hour protected: Weighing and the newborn exam are delayed to prioritize skin-to-skin contact and early breastfeeding.
- Breastfeeding is the norm: Most families plan to breastfeed, and Dr. Emily estimates a breastfeeding success rate of about 99.9%. Families who choose formula are also supported without judgment.
“Out-of-hospital birth is patient-centered by definition,” she says. “We’re trying to promote patient-centered, baby-centered, breastfeeding-centered care.”
On the Baby-Friendly Pathway
The birth center is already accredited by the Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers (CABC), whose self-evaluation process helped prepare the team for Baby-Friendly’s requirements. Also, a member of Dr. Emily’s staff is a former NICU nurse who previously helped a hospital achieve Baby-Friendly designation and is helping to guide their journey through the 4D Pathway.
They have completed Phase 1 of the Pathway and are preparing for Phase 2, which focuses on staff training and documentation of existing practices. Dr. Emily is hoping to receive designation sometime in 2027 and she remains confident that they will achieve their goal.
“I don’t anticipate it being super difficult because all our staff are very knowledgeable about breastfeeding,” she says. “We already have the education.”
Pushing Hospitals to Raise the Bar
For Dr. Emily, Baby-Friendly designation isn’t just a badge for her front window (though she’s eager to place that sticker alongside her accreditation). It’s a strategic tool for influencing the broader maternity care landscape in her community and beyond.
Her birth center maintains active transfer relationships with the local hospitals for situations where a higher level of care is needed. Dr. Emily wants to change the dynamic with those facilities, fostering relationships as true partners in care and safety. Once her center earns Baby-Friendly designation, she plans to use it as both an example and an invitation for the local hospitals to join a broader movement in support of breastfeeding, bonding, and family-centered care.
“I will definitely take this information to them and say, ‘Hey, this is something you guys should do to help our community,’” she says.
Encouraging Other Birth Centers to Follow
In Emily’s view, the ripple effect should not stop at local hospitals. By successfully navigating the Baby-Friendly pathway, Dr. Emily wants her center to send a message to embolden other birth centers: this is doable and it aligns with what birth centers already stand for.
She also notes that BFUSA has made the designation process as accessible as possible for her center through customization for the unique circumstances of the birth center, and she believes those accommodations will help other birth centers as well.
“We should be proud of the unique approach and values we bring as birth centers,” she says.
When the designation finally comes through, Emily she says she will “sing and dance”—and then celebrate with her team and update families and the community.
“I will be very proud when we accomplish this,” she says.