Black Maternal Health Festival:
Activating Our Agency
and Self-Determination
April 11th - April 17th 2025
Remembering the ways that have contributed to our resilience and perseverance.
Remembering the ways that have contributed to our resilience and perseverance.
This first of its kind, this virtual experience will provide tools for the community to address disparity while centering our joy and vitality. We will sit at the feet of hundreds of years of accumulative wisdom, sit with our grief, call in our Ancestors, and learn strategies and remedies that have carried us through the most heinous of times.
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Typically we see that this week centers poor outcomes, death, and disparity. We sit at panels, watch documentaries and listen to keynote speakers leaving us feeling even more angry, traumatized, and hopeless. At this moment collectively, we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope that after this week the light becomes clearer, brighter, that you can feel the warmth in your bones.
This fully virtual festival will be a true testament to the brilliance of technology and the infinite potential we have to use it in a manner that connects us all in deeply profound ways. When is the last time you attended a festival?
We will have all of your favorite elements: live performances, workshops, opportunities to connect with amazing people, make unforgettable memories, meet some of your favorite leaders and artist (in this case birth workers), not to mention, dressing up and adorning yourself, and all from the comfort of your own home! No long lines, no over priced unhealthy food and drinks, no crowded spaces, but all the lasting memories!
If its hard for you to visualize it, it’s only because it has never been done before…until now!
We will gather via Zoom, send out daily newsletter letters to guide you through the day,
and there’s an exclusive VIP experience for those who are members of our online subscription based community, The Virtual Circle.Trust me when I say, this is the community gathering you have been craving during Black Maternal Health Week….
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While this week is centering the experiences, voices, brilliance, history, and future of Black people and families, all are welcomed. We are all impacted by the Medical Industrial Complex. While it is true that Black people are the most harmed and un-alived, we are all impacted by this heinous system. Centering the voices of the most marginalized is imperative in our collective healing and liberation. This festival is for all of us who care about Black people. This event is a safe space for Black people and will center us, celebrate us, and hold us! We will have various offerings through out the week that are for BIPOC only as to ensure we are cultivating a safe space.
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Believe in the traditional midwifery model of care as the anecdote to us all thriving!
Wish to not only optimize our outcomes, but eradicate the Black maternal health crisis as a whole!
Value the wisdom of traditional midwives.
Wish to center our joy, vitality, and pleasure as a tool of liberation!
Are ready to have the time of their lives while being inspired like never before!
Have true love and appreciation for Black women, birthing people, and their babies!
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This is truly a community effort. This festival would not exist without the many hands that have contributed. While, the vision came through Sumi, it was clear that it would take a collective effort to nurture it into fruition. Sumayyah Franklin is a traditional midwife, mother, and mentor of many. She knew from a young age that she was called to be midwife and has remained steadfast to her purpose. She is committed to the preservation and reclamation of traditional midwifery. Today she is caring for her children, supporting her community as a midwife, and facilitating her educational and community offerings both in person and online.
The anecdote has always been and always will be Black traditional midwifery that is rooted in community and sovereignty.
In order for us to eradicate the threats to Black Maternal Health, we need a resurgence of the midwifery model of care that is rooted in community.
We can all thank a Black traditional midwife for being here today…
Black midwifery history doesn't begin with slavery. It is well documented that we have been traveling to the West well before the start of the Atlantic Slave trade. With us, we were always midwives, medicine people, seeers, and herbalists. In fact, in many cases one person may have possessed all of these abilities.
Through the Atlantic slave trade very skilled people were gathered and forced into enslavement. I often wonder how we were able to adapt to these new lands, but maybe they weren't so new after all. An integral part of all people surviving was ensuring that the women and their babies survived child birth and postpartum. Therefore, midwives were vital. These women would care not only for the enslaved Africans but also the white people, too.
The World Health Organization has affirmed that we need over 900,000 midwives by 2035 to save 4.3 million people annually! As a collective, how are we contributing to this number?
As of now, the US has a 4 to 1,000 per capita midwife to patient ratio, which is one of the lowest globally. Even though the US is the richest country we have the worst maternal health outcomes amongst all developed countries. Over 80% of the deaths have been deemed preventable. Yet why do they not only persist but increase in number year after year?
Something so powerful about addressing the most marginalized is that all people will benefit. In the year 2022-23 every racial group’s birth outcomes improved except that of Black people. This is not a mistake. This system was created with our blood, flesh, and sweat as the fuel that keeps it thriving and until this day this remains the case. The system has not failed, it is doing exactly what it was designed to do.
As our benevolent Ancestor Auntie Audre Lorde taught us, we cannot destroy the masters house using the masters tools. If we wish to not just survive, but thrive, we must create new systems of care that center our vitality, that address our ailments, and that are preventative and focuses on the root cause. We are not born with a biological predisposition to have the worst outcomes but rather in the grips of the industrial birth complex and systemic racism. The particular nuanced ways in which anti-Blackness manifests in our care isn’t unique to reproductive health care but rather all areas of the Back experience.
The BMHF is a call to action to activate our agency and determination as a community amidst and in direct response to the Black Maternal health crisis.
Our Intentions With The Festival
I am tired of seeing the centering of our mortality and morbidity. That angle is old to be honest, and not productive. On top of that, the majority of the voices being centered are academics and practitioners who work within the MIC. While I do agree their work and perspective is valuable, we cannot elevate without bringing forth the community midwives. If it's true that the anecdote is a resurgence and return to the traditional midwifery model of care, why aren't we focusing our energy, resources, investments, and strategies here?
The proof is in the numbers: Black women thrive in the care of Black community based midwives! So, we aren't only making our own table, we are inviting you to come take a seat and listen to us goooooood!
Still, there was a missing piece to the puzzle. Having a festival didn't feel motivating enough. I could not see how this brought about tangible change and solution. We cannot afford to live in the hypothetical. This is when a profound full circle moment presented itself: The Black Midwives Fellowship. Since 2016, I have been visiting Mother Heath International birth center in Northern Uganda. Now, in collaboration with MHI, myself, and learning midwife Nikiya _______ ,we will be taking a group of 12 Black midwives and apprentices to the birth center in October 2025.
The festival is our first fundraiser to ensure that these midwives are able to receive the training, skills, and inspiration to liberate their communities as the traditional midwives have done in Uganda. In 20,000 birth they have never lost a mother!!! There is something profound for us to learn and sit at their feet to witness. So, this festival isn’t just a gesture and a hope that we will thrive. It is rooted in tangible change and action! If I took away anything from my many visits to the birth center in Uganda, it's that centering joy is one of our most potent tools of liberation! So let's have some fun!!!
Festival Calendar
April 11
12pm PST
OPENING CEREMONY
Opening Ceremony w/ Yaya DaCosta,
Etecia Burrell, Lizzy Paris
(California)
April 11
5pm PST
Integrating Birth & Pregnancy Trauma : Reframing towards Empowerment
w/ Bria Bailey, Kamailia Williams, Helena Vonk (California)
April 12
12pm PST
Sitting at the Feet:
Mama Tioma moderated by Natalie Reid (Jamaica)
April 12
10am PST
BIPOC Birth Worker Circle
April 12
9am - 9:45am PST
Natal Flow
with Amanda Gloria Valdes
April 13
1:30pm PST
Sunday Sustenance:
Cooking for health with Indigo Blackbird (Colorado)
April 14
6pm PST
Story Time for the Whole Family:
Book reading Victoria and Twins
April 15
6pm PST
Mama Meet Up
Hosted by Ashley Wright
April 17
9am PST
Global Perspective on Black Maternal Health
T. Luna (Ghana)
April 12
5pm PST
Black Birthing Liberation Movement:
Sumi in conversation with clients that have birthed outside of America
(México)
April 13
4pm PST
Roundtable on Pathways to Traditional Midwifery:
Sumi, & Chae (The Americas)
April 15
10am PST
Sitting at the Feet:
Mama Sarahn moderated by Piper (Georgia, USA)
April 16
11am PST
Lactation Lounge
Brandi (CA)
April 17
2pm PST
Closing Ceremony:
April 13
8am PST
Surrender Meditation :
Guled
April 14
9am PST
Workshop: Guide to an Empowered Birth
Sumi (México)
April 15
3pm PST
Grief Circle:
Anisha Spotlight on the Miles Foundation
(North America)
April 16
6pm PST
Papas & Partners:
Chaz Lovemore
The VIP Experience
includes exclusive Pre-Festival Events Daily Journal prompts , Workshops, Curated Conversations, Food and Herbal Recipes of Nutrient Dense Snacks & Beverages + One Year Free to Our Virtual Circle Community
Check Out The VIP Schedule Below. We are adding more events every day!
April 7
12pm PST
Mindful Mommy & Me Mvmt :
Tiara King
April 8
1:30pm PST
Mama Meet Up:
April 8
1:30pm PST
Mama Meet Up:
April 9
10am PST
Lactation and Postpartum Mental Health :
TaNefer Camara
April 9
10am PST
Lactation and Postpartum Mental Health :
TaNefer Camara
April 10
12-1pm PST
Birth Workers BODY LOVE :
Jazz-Ylaine Baptiste
April 10
1:30-2:30pm PST
Breath as Spirit and the Entry Point for Sound
Marlee-I Mystic
Meet Our Guest Speakers
Lizzy Paris.
Guled Muse
Kamailia Williams
Ashley Wright
Etecia Burrell
Victoria Marable
Neram Niminde
Tioma
Naturalie
Indigo Blackbird
Tracy Jones
T Luna Imhotep
Tiara King
Chaz Dobbs
Anisha Johnson
Registration
Gives you access to all general admission events of the festival and event recordings for a week.
Gives full access to all festival events including VIP exclusive gatherings, artist talks, workshops & one year membership to The Virtual Circle.
This is a BIPOC centered festival & allies are welcomes. Your ticket gives you general admission & also sponsors a seat to a BIPOC attendee.
Our Collaborators
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The Miles Foundation is not just a 501c3 philanthropic foundation; we are a united collective who deeply recognize that birth and grief encompass a full spectrum. Therefore, it is crucial to center and validate the experiences of individuals navigating grief and loss across this continuum.
The Miles Foundation provides direct funding and access to maternal health organizations and businesses that center whole person, autonomous maternal care with a focus on grief and healing. We value traditional midwifery, out-of-hospital care, and healing. We give grants to organizations and practitioners for individuals who have directly experienced miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood (SUDC), and or trauma. Learn more about our black birth equity initiative.
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Mother Health International is committed to improving birth outcomes in areas where the burden of mortality
is highest. MHI uses the midwifery model of care to reduce barriers and build collaborative, community-focused maternal health care solutions. Reproductive Healthcare is a human right. Mothers have the right to not only survive childbirth, but thrive.MHI organizes care according to the Quality Maternal Newborn Care Framework described in the landmark Lancet Series, which states that at scale, Midwifery Care would avert 80% of unnecessary mortality in low and middle-income countries. ‘Ot Nywal Me Kuc’ (House of Birth and Peace) is MHI’s model birth center. In thirteen years of service, the birth center has scaled to provide
full-spectrum reproductive healthcare to 90% of the women in the region and turned perinatal mortality rates upside down. While the neonatal mortality rate is 54/1000 births in Northern Uganda, rates have consistently been 11/1000 at the birth center in Atiak. In close to 20,000 deliveries MHI has never lost a mother. -
Breast Friends Lactation Support services is a nonprofit organization supporting and empowering families in the San Francisco Bay Area through one-on-one consultation, groups, and classes since 2013. The idea of Breast Friends came while working with the Black families in East and West Oakland neighborhoods. Breastfeeding was not part of the parenting culture. The mothers of this community did not breastfeed their babies past the first month. The West Oakland community has some of the poorest health outcomes in Alameda County. The Black breastfeeding initiation and duration rates are below the national average. Breastfeeding is a natural safety net to protect against many health disparities that plague the Black community.
The Breast Friends Mommy group was created in the spirit of change and creating a heritage of health. Breast Friends, as it is commonly called, is a Black identified focused support group for pregnant and breastfeeding mamas. Since its creation, Brandi and the Breast Friends team have supported over 500 mamas and babies in the East and West Oakland Area. Many have surpassed their original breastfeeding goals and continue to refer family and friends to this unique space. They believe in a peer-to-peer support model and that other mamas modeling normal breastfeeding behavior will positively impact the lactation journey, making their personal infant feeding goals attainable.
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An after hours Infant feeding, pregnancy and postpartum virtual support group created to uplift, encourage and share experiences on breastfeeding, lactation, pregnancy, postpartum and parenting.