The midwives and changemakers carrying this forward
The exhibition opened with Black midwives being pushed out of a profession they had carried for three centuries. It ends with the people rebuilding it.
The list of midwives featured below is not nearly comprehensive. There are so many incredible practitioners working on the ground each day to rise the tides of perinatal healthcare and lift all ships — provide all of our communities with higher quality and more equitable care. This is a starting point. We invite you to continue learning and following more incredible midwives.
12 of the many Black midwives rebuilding this profession
Shafia Monroe
Founder of the International Center for Traditional Childbearing; historian and mentor.
@shafiamonroe ↗
Jennie Joseph
Founder of Commonsense Childbirth; creator of The JJ Way® and a policy leader in birth equity.
@iamjenniejoseph ↗
Jamarah Amani
Community midwife and co-founder of the Southern Birth Justice Network.
@southernbirthjustice ↗
Nicole Deggins, CNM
Founder of Sista Midwife Productions; created the Black Midwife and Doula Directory, the largest of its kind, free to search and free to be listed in.
@sistamidwife ↗
Nichole Wardlaw, DNP, CNM
Founder of Jamii Birth and Wellness Services, a home birth practice in coastal Virginia; board chair of the National Black Midwives Alliance. A midwife since 2005.
@jamiibirthandwellness ↗
Racha Tahani Lawler Queen
LA-based midwife who opened Virginia's only Black-owned birth center in 2024.
@rachatahani ↗
Kimberly Durdin
Co-founder of Kindred Space LA; lactation consultant, doula trainer, and advocate.
@kindredspacela ↗
Nikki McIver-Brown, APRN, MSN, CNM
Founder of San Antonio Nurse Midwife Birth & Wellness Center, the only Black-owned birth center in southern Texas. A labor and delivery nurse for thirteen years before she became a midwife.
@sanantonionursemidwife ↗
Okunsola M. Amadou
Founder & CEO of Jamaa Birth Village; Missouri's first Black Certified Professional Midwife.
@jamaabirthvillage ↗
Rebecca Polston
Founder of Roots Community Birth Center in Minneapolis, and Minnesota's first Black Certified Professional Midwife.
@rootsbirthcenter ↗
Nikia Grayson
Chief Clinical Officer at CHOICES in Memphis; opened the city’s first birth center and launched the nation’s first Black midwifery fellowship.
@nikiagrayson_midwife ↗
Stephanie Mitchell
Certified nurse-midwife and founder of Birth Sanctuary Gainesville.
@doctor_midwife ↗Individual practices cannot carry a system on their own. These organizations join in and expand on the work — through training, funding, licensure fights, and the political work that so much of everything we do hinges upon.
Advocacy & organizing
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.
Funding & access
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.
birthFUND
Elaine Welteroth's fund, with Serena Williams — removing the financial barriers to midwife-led care so families who couldn't otherwise afford it can give birth safely.
Baby Yams
Tatyana Ali's handmade heirloom quilts in Ankara and Batik fabrics, with 100% of proceeds going directly to Black and Indigenous midwives and doulas.
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.
They can help you learn more about this profession — from the era in which it was dismantled to the current day in which it continues to be rebuilt.
All My Babies: A Midwife's Own Story
1953 · Dir. George C. Stoney · 19 min
Watch →
Aftershock
2022 · Dir. Paula Eiselt & Tonya Lewis Lee · Hulu
Watch →
Deliver Us
2022 · Dir. Jenny Callaghan & Randi Matthews
Watch →
With Woman
2023 · Dir. Mia Harvey · The Guardian · 20 min
Watch →
In These Hands
In production · Dir. Eva Woolridge
Watch →Black midwifery is a legacy of survival, resistance, and care inside a system that has long failed Black communities. Honoring it means investing in the people who carry it now.
This exhibition opened with a question: why do Black families have to be so careful, so early? You have the answer now. Four centuries of evidence.
The people recognized in this last chapter — and so many others alongside them — are working every day, mostly underfunded, and mostly without the institutional support and cover that would make any of it easier.
So here is the simplest first step we can think to offer on what to do next. Pick one name or organization from this page. Learn more about them. Find out what kind of support they are asking for. Find out how you can connect and become a part of their support network.
Continue to dig deeper. We did not, by any means, cover everything here. There is so much more to learn, so much more to investigate, to uncover, to confront, to transform. Thank you for your time and your attention, and we look forward to what comes next.
Sources 1 entry
- PENDING — portraits supplied by each midwife or their practice. Photographer credit and permission to be confirmed per image before launch.