These Maternal Care Organizations Are Fighting For A Better Future for Black Mothers
Leave it to our community to directly combat the Black maternal health crisis. While the numbers are staggering, the efforts to combat negative outcomes is inspiring.
Leave it to our community to directly combat the Black maternal health crisis. While the numbers are staggering, the efforts to combat negative outcomes is inspiring. Between larger organizations and community based cooperatives, Black women specifically are leading the charge in improving birthing outcomes for our community.
These organizations are doing the work, ensuring better outcomes for birthing people. Whether assisting with prenatal care, providing doula and midwifery services, or helping to create a stable, safe, and comforting environment for birthing people, these organizations are leading the way.
With the explicit goal of improving the lives of birthing people and their families, the Maternal Care Coalition (MCC) strategically combats racial disparities in pregnancy care, birth, and postpartum care.Using an approach based on policy, research, justice, and advocacy, MCC is leading the charge against negative outcomes in birth for our community.
With a holistic approach to pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, Oshun Family Center operates as a refuge for birthing people. From fertility support to healing postpartum, Oshun Family center offers a spectrum of support for the whole birthing experience.
Once Upon A Preemie (OUAP) is an organization that intentionally centers Black preemie family care and advocacy. By empowering our community with information and centering our experiences, OUAP is making a difference by illuminating the intersections of maternal care, preemie care, and racial disparities within care.
Boasting a 95% rating in positive and empowered births, Wombish’s doula services arm our families with information, preparation, and support throughout the pregnancy. Wombish gives birthing families what they ultimately want, safe, informed, even joyful birth experiences..
Operating as a safe space for Black mothers, CocoLife.Black uses a community empowering model to pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Emphasizing the adage that “it takes a village”, CocoLife.Black empowers not just the family unit giving birth, but those surrounding them as well.
Taking an empowering approach, Linked Family Services provides access to education and resources for birthing families. Tackling insecurities such as food and even diaper insecurities, Linked Family Services directly addresses the problems faced by families and works with them to move from cycles of instability to stability.
Philly CAN is a community of organizations with the goal of eliminating maternal and infant mortality and morbidity. This collaborative effort directly addresses racial disparities in maternal in infant care and combats them using community guidance and accountability.
Born from Philly CAN, the Philly Joy Bank puts money where its mouth is, literally. This organization provides a stipend to birthing families from the second trimester of pregnancy up until that child’s first birthday.
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Whitney Roberts
Whitney Roberts is a Philadelphia writer, podcaster, and content creator featured by the NAACP, Wired, NBC, and more. She contributes to outlets like TheRoot and NPR, amplifying diverse voices and stories.
