“Our birth center is definitely different,” said founder Okunsola M. Amadou.
For nearly a decade, the founder of the Jamaa Birth Village in Ferguson, Missouri has had one simple goal, and that is to improve maternity care for Black families in the St. Louis area.
As reported by the . “I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman’s experience.”
“The type of care, the type of information and the type of support that is given and made available to white women no matter their income, no matter their education — it is not made available to Black women no matter our income, insurance type, ZIP code or education,” Amadou said.
The Jamaa Birth Village Birth Center and Postpartum Retreat Haven will be located at the corner of Hereford and Cunningham Avenues, just north of downtown Ferguson, Missouri. Until it fully opens, Amadou’s current clients will continue to give birth at home with a midwife or in a hospital.
Since 2016, the facility has trained nearly 200 Black women to serve as doulas, according to the report.
Per the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 861 women nationwide died during pregnancy or within 42 days after birth in 2020. Thousands more die every year from health-related complications after giving birth.
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