Sarah Dunn, a longtime North Idaho-based midwife, plans to open Ancient Paths Birth & Wellness LLC, a multidiscipline birthing center, in Coeur d’Alene next month.

The center will occupy 2,700 square feet of leased space in a single-tenant building in the Professional Plaza office complex at 2201 N. Government Way.

Dunn says she’ll be Ancient Paths’ midwife, and the center also will have a massage therapist, a lactation consultant, and ultrasound and photography ser-vices. 

She says seven or eight people will work at the center.

A midwife is trained to assist women during pregnancy and childbirth.

Dunn is licensed to practice in Idaho and is certified as a professional midwife through the nationally accredited North American Registry of Midwives.

“I’m licensed to take care of moms and babies within the first six weeks of birth,” she says.

Dunn says she has been a midwife for 12 years and has operated her own home-based practice for more than 10 years.

She says the majority of births she will attend will be at the center, although she will continue to attend some births in home settings.

Ancient Paths will specialize in water births in a birthing tub, she says.

Real estate agent Pat Eberlin, of Spokane-based brokerage Kiemle & Hagood Co., handled the lease for birthing center’s space in the Professional Plaza.