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✢ 2023

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Black

Maternal

Health

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week!

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what is it?

Held annually from April 11th until April 17th, Black Maternal Health Week (BMHW) was founded by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, Inc. as a weeklong campaign to bring awareness to and advocate for the voices and experiences of Black birthing people. BMHW is on its sixth year.

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✢ BMHW

DID YOU KNOW?

April is also National Minority Health Month, and April 11th marks the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights.

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this year's theme is:

“Our Bodies Belong to Us: Restoring Black Autonomy and Joy!”

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This theme centers Black joy and amplifies the strength and power Black mothers possess to live

freely.

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✢ ORGANIZATIONS

check out some related organizations locally and nationally!

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Painted Handdrawn Mom Holding Baby Shoes

DID YOU KNOW?

Hundreds of organizations are committed to saving the lives of Black mothers.

Many of these organizations began by providing holistic healthcare services with the aim of reducing the Black maternal mortality rate.

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Painted Handdrawn Yoga Mom

the national birth equity collaborative (nbec)

Founder and President Joia Adele Crear-Perry, MD, FACOG

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The National Birth Equity Collaborative works to provide optimal birthing opportunities and conditions for all Black birthing people. Established in 2015, NBEC was created to combat the infant and maternal mortality rates in people of color. Through policy and advocacy, culture shifts, global birth equity projects, research, business development, and community-accessible training, NBEC serves Black mothers by ensuring more equitable care overall.


In response to the recent Roe v Wade decision, NBEC released a call to action as part of their Black Reproductive Justice Agenda, titled, “Abortion is a Reproductive Justice Issue for Black Families and Communities.” The letter was co-authored by In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, which is a reproductive justice partnership of eight Black Women’s reproductive justice organizations. The letter was also co-authored by BMMA, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, and the Black Women’s Health Imperative.


The letter includes a layout of several reproductive issues affecting Black birthing people, as well as a final call to action on a national policy standpoint. NBEC asks for increased funding and support for Black reproductive organizations, the establishment of a White House Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing, and the incorporation of reproductive justice values into foreign policy.

NBEC continues to partner with renowned Black reproductive justice organizations and create practical solutions to advancing Black maternal health.

the black maternal health caucus

Founders and Chairs Congresswomen Alma Adams and Lauren Underwood

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The Black Maternal Health Caucus is organized around elevating the Black maternal health crisis within Congress and advancing related policy solutions to combat the crisis. Launched in 2019, the Caucus has now grown to be one of the largest bipartisan caucuses in congress with over 100 members as of January 2020.


In 2020, the Caucus introduced the Black Maternal Momnibus Act of 2021 to comprehensively address America’s maternal health crisis. The bill includes 12 titles derived from 12 respective standalone bills. The bill addresses a comprehensive list of issues including veteran maternal care, perinatal workforce diversity, maternal health research, pregnant and postpartum people who are incarcerated, and even climate change response.


Missouri’s own Representative Cori Bush is a member of the Black Maternal Health Caucus, and she has long expressed her support for expanding maternal healthcare and reducing the Black maternal mortality rate. In May of 2021, Bush testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing titled, “About the Black Maternal Health Crisis” regarding the painful mistreatment she experienced during pregnancy as a Black woman.


The Black Maternal Health Caucus continues to uplift the voices of Black birthing people and raise awareness to the stark disparities growing in our nation.

sistersong women

of color reproductive justice collective

Executive Director Monica Simpson

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SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective is a mutli-ethnic, national membership organization amplifying the voices of indigenous women and women of color to achieve reproductive justice. Founded in 1997 by 16 organizations of women of color, SisterSong has worked for over 20 years to provide better outcomes for marginalized communities. The organization has numerous initiatives and programs coordinated to bring awareness to specific communities and issues. With an art activism collective, relief funds for marginalized birthing people, reproductive justice training, and a southern network of policy advocates, SisterSong is dedicated to engaging with thousands of community members and mobilizing large entities to bring their voice to the reproductive justice movement.


In 2010, SisterSong created the national Trust Black Women partnership in response to racist and sexist anti-abortion billboards accusing abortion-seeking Black women of genocide. Formed with other Black women-led organizations, Trust Black Women works to change the national perception of Black women, uplift Black women to care and advocate for themselves, and rewrite the narrative. Joining forces with the Black Lives Matter movement, SisterSong highlights that trusting Black women is affirming that Black lives do matter.


In January of 2023, SisterSong convened a summit between reproductive justice leaders in which they authored and signed a statement with nearly 40 organizations. The statement, titled, “Visioning New Futures for Reproductive Justice Declaration 2023,” reclaims the demands of the original Reproductive Justice movement started by Black women activists.

Jamaa Birth Village is Missouri’s first Black-owned midwifery clinic. Founded in 2015, Jamaa Birth Village began with a vision rooted in cultural heritage to provide empowering support and combat racial and health equities. With a range of holistic care options, Jamaa Birth Village offers individual services, including personalized prenatal and postpartum midwifery care, doula care services, wellness therapy, childbirth education classes, and their own analysis of labs and ultrasounds with partner physicians and hospitals. Embodying its name—Jamaa meaning ‘family’ in Swahili—the clinic also provides a family support program to pregnant and postpartum individuals in need of career guidance, exercise or self-care guidance, and more.


In 2018, Jamaa Birth Village launched the St. Louis Doulas of Color Collective to support all women of color who were on the path of becoming a doula or who were trained doulas. In 2021, Jamaa Birth Village expanded these efforts with the STL 360 Doula Initiative, which is a collaborative effort to restructure the maternal care environment to focus on the needs of Black pregnant St. Louisans. Within this initiative, 360 local doulas will be integrated into the community over a three-year period and the Doulas of Color Collective will invest in public health and health system advocacy to support Black women.


In 2022, Jamaa Birth Village officially launched plans to build a new 5,000-square-foot birth center and a $1 million capital campaign to reach this goal. In early 2023, Jamaa Birth Village also launched the city’s first Black-led milk express and deposit site in partnership with The Milk Bank, which aims to expand the safe use of human milk for babies by collecting and distributing pasteurized human donor breast milk.

jamaa birth

village

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Founder and CEO Okunsola M. Amadou, CPM

Medical Students for Choice is an internationally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a network of over 10,000 medical students and residents. Founded by medical students in 1993, MSFC ensures that medical students and trainees are comprehensively educated about reproductive healthcare, including abortion. MSFC works to make abortion services and family planning resources more readily available in medical education. Through student organizing, conferences, training institutes, and abortion training, MSFC is dedicated to creating abortion providers and pro-choice physicians for the future. With chapters on medical school campuses and at residency programs in 28 countries,

ra MSFC focuses on amplifying the voices of medical students and implementing grassroots activism into their efforts.


The Executive Director of MSFC is a St. Louis resident and works tirelessly to combat Missouri’s harsh abortion regulations and train medical students at local universities, such as Washington University in St. Louis.

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medical students for choice

Executive Director Pamela Merritt

check out more st. louis and/or missouri based organizations!

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interested in learning more?

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PANEL DISCUSSION

Black

Maternal

Health

join us!

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WHEN

Friday, April 21st

1 - 2pm



WHERE

Center for Global Citizenship

3672 West Pine Mall, St. Louis, MO 63108

PAMELA MERRITT

Executive Director of Medical Students for Choice

IYA OKUNSOLA M. AMADOU

Founder & CEO of Jamaa Birth Village

EBONI BOATENG

Doula & Owner of Birthing You Doula Services

Ibura DeHaan

Poet, Doula, & MPH Candidate at Wash U

CHLOE LYTLE

Nursing Student at SLU & Labor and Delivery Worker

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✢ ABOUT

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This website was made by Gabrielle Mitchell-Bonds in collaboration with Dr. Olubukola Gbadegesin and the African American Studies Department of Saint Louis University for Black Maternal Health Week.

with special thanks to our slu co-sponsors for the panel!

Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics


Department of Women's and Gender Studies


Office of the Dean


Division of Diversity and Innovative Community Engagement (DICE)


Atlas Week