The midwives and changemakers carrying this forward

National Black Midwives Alliance

A Black midwife–led alliance honoring the legacy, building the power, and amplifying the voice of Black midwives — through mentorship, scholarships, and Black Midwives Day.

National Association to Advance Black Birth

Advocacy, research, and the Black Birthing Bill of Rights, confronting structural racism in maternal-infant health. Formerly the International Center for Traditional Childbearing.

National Perinatal Task Force

Jennie Joseph's grassroots movement growing Perinatal Safe Spots in every "materno-toxic area" — judgment-free access to care where poor birth outcomes cluster.

Black Mamas Matter Alliance

A Black women-led alliance that sets the national agenda on Black maternal health — research, policy, and the annual Black Maternal Health Week. Much of the language other organizations now use started here.

The Mothers of Gynecology Health and Wellness Museum and Clinic

Michelle Browder’s project at 33 S. Perry Street in Montgomery, Alabama — the site where J. Marion Sims operated on Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy and other enslaved women. Her 15-foot monument to the three has stood nearby since 2021; the museum and clinic are being built on the ground itself, as a place for midwives, doulas and medical students to learn.

African Indigenous Midwifery Museum & Library Research Institute

A global first — a cultural heritage museum in Ferguson, Missouri, dedicated to preserving, honoring, and uplifting the legacy of African Indigenous and Black Diasporic midwives. Through immersive exhibits, artifacts, oral histories, and research archives, the museum offers an intergenerational historical journey into the many sacred birth practices across Africa and the Diaspora.

Ancient Song Doula Services

Founded in Brooklyn in 2008 by Chanel Porchia-Albert and now working nationally — full-spectrum doula care on a sliding scale with no family turned away, community doula training, and the policy fight for Medicaid reimbursement.

4Kira4Moms

Founded in 2017 by Charles Johnson IV after his wife, Kira Dixon Johnson, bled internally for more than ten hours following a routine cesarean while staff dismissed his concerns. Its Maternal Mortality Response Team reaches affected families within 24 hours; the Kira Johnson Act carries her name into federal law.

Baby Yams

Baby Yams, founded by actress and Black maternal health advocate Tatyana Ali, offers quilted goods for the nursery. With a portion of proceeds supporting Black and Indigenous midwives and doulas, the brand was created to raise awareness by honoring mothers and the community of birth workers that hold them.

birthFUND

Elaine Welteroth founded birthFUND in April 2024 after her own home birth, matching individual funders with families who cannot meet the out-of-pocket cost of midwifery care. More than $3 million raised, and grants placed through Birth Center Equity and The Victoria Project.

Serena Williams

Her account of the day after her first daughter’s birth opens Chapter 12 of this exhibition. She has since co-founded birthFUND with Elaine Welteroth and spoken publicly, repeatedly, about what it took to be believed — “having babies in America was a wake-up call for both of us.”

The WELLS Act

Mercedes Wells was discharged from an Indiana hospital in active labor and gave birth in her truck on the side of the road. Rep. Robin Kelly announced the WELLS Act in her honor in November 2025 — it would require hospitals to implement a safe discharge labor plan, and includes racial bias training for healthcare professionals.

She Runs the World

Allyson Felix was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia at 32 weeks and delivered by emergency C-section. When her sponsor proposed cutting her pay by nearly 70%, she refused a private deal and demanded maternal protections for every athlete. The 2025 documentary tells it, and the campaign around the film funds midwifery care.

Elephant Circle

A Colorado birth justice organization founded by Indra Lusero, JD — named for the way elephants give birth inside a circle of support. Architect of Colorado’s 2021 Birth Equity legislation, and of the 2010 bill that ended the shackling of incarcerated people during pregnancy and birth in that state.

Birth Rights Bar Association

Legal advocates building the case law and the arguments that birth justice needs, because no law school teaches it. Publishers of Birth Rights, a plain-language guide for people defending their human rights during labor and birth.

Birth Place Lab

Saraswathi Vedam’s research lab at the University of British Columbia. Its Giving Voice to Mothers study established that mistreatment during childbirth in the U.S. differs significantly by race, and its MADM and MORi scales — measures of autonomy and respect, designed with patients rather than about them — are now used in more than sixty countries.

Birth Center Equity

Investing in Black, Indigenous, and people-of-color–led birth centers at scale — a birth center for every community. Led by CEO Leseliey Welch.

Sista Midwife Productions

Founded by Nicole Deggins, CNM, in 2011. Runs the largest Black midwife and doula directory online at blackmidwifedirectory.com — free to search and free to be listed in — alongside doula training and birth-advocacy education. If you are looking for care rather than a way to contribute, start here.

Irth

Kimberly Seals Allers’s review app — “birth, without the B for bias.” Black and brown parents rate hospitals and providers on how they were actually treated, from prenatal care through a baby’s first year, and the reviews become data the partner hospitals are shown.