Marin City Health and Wellness Center

The US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized country in the world: more than 2 women die every day in this country from pregnancy-related causes; and our maternal mortality ratios have increased dramatically over the past 25 years. For Black women the maternal health disparities are severe: African American women or their babies are nearly 4 times more likely (than White or Latina moms) to die as a result of childbirth.

The Marin Family Birth Center opened in 2016 as the only place where a Medi-Cal mom in Marin could give birth outside of the hospital or her home. Longer appointments with a midwife (who cares for the same new mother through prenatal counseling, birth and post-natal care) lead to better health outcomes for mother and baby.

The birth center operates as part of a public health clinic (FQHC), which offers wraparound care including women's health, maternal care, pediatric, dental and behavioral health.

MCHWC provides recovery services for those dealing with addiction to heroin, prescription pain medication or alcohol. Our substance abuse counseling and Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) program is available to the homeless and general population. We partner with other service providers and the criminal justice system in Marin and San Francisco counties to help adults in need.

We provide these services from three clinic sites in the Bay Area:
• Individual and group counseling
• Medical treatment for opioid use, heroin, prescriptions pain meds, or alcohol
• Suboxone/Vivitrol Medication-Assisted Recovery
• Resources and referrals to outpatient and in-patient treatment programs

Founded in 2006 to provide healthcare to residents of public housing, our mission is innovative health and wellness services for all, with the goal of African American health equity.

As a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), we provide primary healthcare (medical, dental and behavioral health), maternal and perinatal care, medication assisted recovery treatment, chiropractic, acupuncture, health education, and chronic disease management for patients, regardless of income. Services include:
• State-of-the-art medical and dental care
• Behavioral and mental health programs
• Healthy lifestyle programs for all ages
• Natural birth center (Marin County’s first alternative birth facility)
• Youth leadership programs for Black teen boys (The Defenders) and teen girls (Girl Power)


We accept Medi-Cal (Medicaid), Medicare and private insurance, and our Certified Enrollment Counselor helps patients with eligibility. In 2016, we:
• Provided 13,816 medical, dental and behavioral health visits to 3,065 unique patients;
• Served all ages: 67% of patients are 25-64 years old, and patients range from infants to seniors;
• Reached multicultural patients: 44% Caucasian, 22% African American, 11% Latino, 5% Asian.

We are expanding dental health for low-income adults through primary oral health services, prevention and treatment from two clinic sites (Marin City and Bayview Hunters Point), and a new mobile dental van. In addition, we are working with school districts (Sausalito Marin City and San Francisco Unified) to , and to reinforce dental health education through referrals among primary care and wellness services (such as nutrition, well-child exams and annual visits); all are reinforced by texts to patients.