The purpose of this statement is to declare, collectively, that Black midwives are crucial to healing and resolving the Black maternal and infant morbidity and mortality crisis. Without incorporating the midwifery model of care as the standard for perinatal health we will continue to see this crisis escalate. And for care that is culturally sensitive, Black families need access to Black midwives.

Birthing people need to receive full, attentive, sensitive, detailed care and support—before pregnancy, during the prenatal period, throughout labor and birth, and extensively during the postpartum period. This type of care requires a community ethos as a fundamental basis, implemented by those that are trained with those core principles and skill sets: Midwives. Midwives work in tandem with doulas, community health workers, obstetricians, and pediatricians.

During Black Maternal Health Week, which was commemorated April 11-17, Vice President Kamala Harris held a historic round table at the White House, addressing Black maternal health. She correctly asserted the grim statistic that Black women are two to three times more likely to die in childbirth than other women and highlighted doulas as a key solution to the crisis. We absolutely need doulas. We celebrate doulas. However, doulas are a part of a more comprehensive approach. Midwives are a necessary component of the equation.

It is no coincidence that countries across the world with the best birth outcomes are also countries that employ midwives as primary care providers in perinatal healthcare. The United States, not surprisingly, ranks among the lowest of industrialized nations in birth outcomes, but supports a healthcare system which demeans the role and value of the midwife, and which strategically limits the capacity of midwives across the country to attend to families, through restrictive state laws and policies. It is also well documented that the United States healthcare system has erased the historical and monumental importance of Black midwives who were once the primary care providers for pregnant people of all races of the South since the time of slavery through the 1950s, while simultaneously stigmatizing the profession.  

Vice President Harris also identified the racial and structural inequities that result in police killings of Black people as the same inequities that create higher rates of death in pregnancy and childbirth among Black women. This link is at the crux of the crisis. Compounded incidents of racism add to stress levels that Black people experience on a regular basis; these stress levels, when converted to the release of cortisol and allostatic load, contribute to troubling health statistics for birthing people and their babies.

When healthcare choices do not prioritize the total emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing of birthing people, or their real needs or challenges, this is when consequences are grave. It has been well established that midwives, as caregivers, are logistically better equipped to provide consistent, continuous care that is more sensitive to the myriad and diverse needs of families and better positioned to identify and address complications when they arise. And we know that this level of insight and care prevents morbid and perverse outcomes.

There have been many responses to this crisis from both healthcare and legislative angles throughout the decades, and in all of these responses, the absence of measures that increase the capacity of midwives to assist in this crisis is glaring, unfortunate, and—given the data we possess—irresponsible.
On this International Day of the Midwife, and on the heels of Black Maternal Health Week, we make it resoundingly clear that Black women and Black birthing people need midwives as a crucial part of their perinatal health team. And they need Black midwives to provide comprehensive and culturally specific care that can save lives.

To actively realize this goal, there needs to be meaningful investment in
1. Increasing access and opportunities for training and education for all types of midwives,
2. Aligning all current midwifery education to a birth justice framework,
3. Educating the public as to the actual, measurable effectiveness of midwives,
4. Supporting midwifery regulation that allows a variety of trained midwives to reach the families that most need them, and
5. Supporting families in having greater access to midwifery care.

The returns of this investment would be a reduction in the millions of dollars spent in excessive medical interventions each year and a significant decrease in the unquantifiable and unaffordable cost of suffering.

Signed,

National Black Midwives Alliance

and

Haguerenesh Tesfa, CNM
Jamarah Amani, LM
Jennie Joseph, Midwife
Nichole Wardlaw, CNM
Heather Clarke, CNM
Alexis Dunn Amore, CNM
Helena Grant, CNM
Ebony Marcelle, CNM
Pandora Hardtman, CNM
Noelene Jeffers, CNM
Kiki Jordan, CPM
Tifini Austin, LM, CPM
Efe Osaren, Student Midwife
Jessica Brumley, CNM
Char'ly Snow, CNM
Ebony Marcelle, CNM
Cat Dymond, Student Nurse-Midwife
Shafia Monroe, Community Midwife
Aisha Ralph, LM, CPM
Dr. LaVonne Moore, CNM
Trinisha Williams, CM
Sarahn Henderson, Community Midwife
Lavone Beckwith, CNM
Niulquie Sajous-McKinney, BS, CPM Candidate
Lodz Joseph-Lemon, CNM
Malaika Miller, CNM
Makeda Rambert, CNM
Dr. Ameena Ali, Direct Entry
Sheila Simms Watson, LM, CPM
Jennifer Silvera, Student CPM
Nailah Dodd, CNM
Makeda Kamara, DEM, CNM
Feeta Caphart, CNM

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Thank you to our supporters:
Metro Detroit Midwives of Color
Fertile Ground Midwifery LLC
National Association of Certified Professional Midwives
Women’s March Florida
Southern Birth Justice Network
Birth Detroit
Kenda Sutton-EL, Birth in Color RVA
Mary Harris, LM, CPM, A Loving Start
Dawna Insua, Dawna’s Birth Services
Micaiah Boyea, Boyea Birth Services
Nicole White, LM, CPM
Leseliey Welch, MBA, MPH, Birth Center Equity
Emily Anesta, Bay State Birth Coalition
Dana Gordon, LM CPM
Annie Menzel, CPM
Corina Fitch, LM, CPM, Bellymama Midwifery
Nora Kropp, CPM
Shafia Monroe Consulting/Birthing CHANGE
Wendy Gordon, LM, CPM, Bastyr University Dept of Midwifery
Linda Spencer
Lisa Kane Low, CNM
Ray Rachlin, LM, CPM, Refuge Midwifery
Maddy Oden, The Tatia Oden French Memorial Foundation
Carrie Speno, Student Midwife
Diversity Uplifts, Inc.
D'Andra Willis, Southern Roots Doula Collective
Carolyn Fisher
Felipe Tendick-Matesanz, Public Health Scientist
Sarah Krinsky
Ginger Webb, Community Engagement Project
Amanda Mann, Lakeland Midwifery Care
Mary Lawlor, CPM
Ashleigh Woodruff, Student Midwife
Sofia Ladner
Telika Howard
The National Association to Advance Black Birth
Shades of Blue Project
Daniela Barquet
Taweret Midwifery
Chosen Vessels Midwifery Services
Tamara Etienne, Labor Land Doula
Birth Future Foundation
Willbliss Jeranabi, Student
Midwife in the City
Birth in the Tradition
Foremothers Birth Services LLC
Maia Peterson
Jessica Garcia, Student Midwife
Teonia Burton, All Families Birth & Wellness Services, LLC
Dr. Angie Bond
Elisa Vandervort, CNM
Angelita Nixon, CNM
AnnMarie Rian, LM, CPM
Molly Dutton-Kenny, CPM
Patricia Ross, CPM, Midwives on Missions of Service
Makeda Abraham, P. E.A.C.E. Wellness Collective (mental health practitioners)
Rochelle Trotman-Norman
Katie Page, CNM
Emily O Kimm, Public Health Professional
Debra Rhizal, CNM
Karen Kelly, LM, CM
Delmar Bauta, Community Midwife, Steel City Homebirth
The Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery
Carol Sakala, National Partnership for Women & Families
Melissa Bair, CNM
Kim Sands
Rae Davies, The Birth Company
Hearthstone Midwifery, Lactation and Craniosacral Services
Keisha Goode, National Association of Certified Professional Midwives



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