Black Maternal Health Week 2020

Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17)

Honoring Black Mamas

During Black Maternal Health Week we will be centering Black mothers and recognizing their right to not only live, but thrive, especially during this pandemic. We will continue to fight and work towards better and equitable maternal health care and outcomes for Black women and their babies. We at FAM will continue to push the needle forward by supporting and funding initiatives committed to improving Black maternal health care and making midwifery care accessible to Black women and their families. Part of this is fostering a vibrant workforce of Black midwives.

This week

FAM has been uplifting and highlighting Black women-led organizations and leadership, as they tell their truths, letting them speak for themselves and the communities they are from and serve. FAM listens to, believes, and trusts Black women and centers the work they have done and continue to do for Black mothers and babies. So we will act as a megaphone and amplify their messages. All week, we have been celebrating Black-women led midwifery and maternal health organizations on social media (Facebook, Twitter).

Learn more & support

You can uplift Black maternal health by learning more about and donating to these Black-led organizations who are supporting Black midwives, community-based models of care, and grassroots solutions.

And many more in your community and throughout North America.

Recommended Reading for
Black Maternal Health Week

Birth Justice Bill of Rights
Introduced this week by Southern Birth Justice and the National Black Midwives Alliance
Highlighting the launch of the Birth Center Equity Fund.
“At this moment, birth centers are stepping up to make a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic…. National organizations like the Foundation for the Advancement of Midwifery are sounding the alarm, stating that we ‘must act quickly to involve out-of-hospital midwives in pandemic planning and response’ as COVID-19 places increasing strain on hospitals.”
“To be clear, most births do not need to occur in a hospital setting. In fact, in almost every other industrialized nation in the world, women do not give birth with doctors and are not in an official hospital setting at all, unless there are complications or a medical necessity. The question we should be asking now is, why are we? “
COVID-19 Is No Reason to Abandon Pregnant People
(Scientific American) by Monica R. McLemore
“Ensuring those most vulnerable in our society receive the support they need is an ethical imperative. To suggest that birthing people be isolated from the essential support they need as they bring new people into the world should be considered only as a last resort.”
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Moms Rising: Midwives on the front lines of COVID-19Covid19, News
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Webinar: Emerging Models of Midwifery During the COVID-19 PandemicCovid19, News