The fight to keep Black moms and babies alive

The Iowa Black Doula Collective trains doulas to help educate and advocate for Black women during pregnancy and childbirth. Research shows women who work with doulas are less likely to have low birth-weight babies and experience birth complications. Since forming in 2020, the Collective has raised over $200,000 and trained 64 Black doulas.

Accredited social health activists (ASHA) travel throughout Indian villages to combat medical misinformation — specifically among pregnant people — and make public healthcare more accessible. ASHAs connects with over 60% of the women in the villages she serves via WhatsApp, sharing educational videos to avoid the harmful effects of misinformation. As a result, ASHAs have had a massive impact on maternal mortality rates. In 2006, the maternal mortality rate was 254 deaths per 100,000 live births, but in 2020 it dropped to 96 per 100,000 births.

Black Girls Break Bread addresses maternal mortality disparities among Black women by providing safe spaces, advocating for policy reform and improving local healthcare access. The group successfully advocated for Illinois House Bill 5013, expanding Medicaid patients' freedom to choose healthcare providers, reducing barriers to accessing care. Beyond maternal health care, the group also addresses other community needs like mutual aid and mental health issues among Black women.

Doulas are becoming a more widely used resource among pregnant people, particularly Black women who historically face racial inequities during pregnancy and childbirth. Groups like The Doula Network and the Southern Birth Justice Network are working to expand doula services by training and connecting pregnant women with certified doulas. Doula care is more holistic and studies show that women using doulas have about a 65% reduction in their odds of developing postpartum depression or anxiety when a doula is present during labor and delivery.

In an effort to combat high rates of maternal mortality and healthcare disparities among pregnant Black women, MLK Community Hospital offers combined care from certified nurse midwives and obstetricians to ensure a safe, healthy birth. Midwifery offers more sensitive and individualized care and is also linked to fewer C-sections and preterm births. At MLK Community Hospital, 14% of its first-time, low-risk births involved a C-section, compared to 23% of such births across the state.

The Women-Inspired Neighborhood (WIN) Network: Detroit works to improve Black infant health outcomes by providing support services like group prenatal care, targeted home visits, and breastfeeding programs. By using the CenteringPregancy model, over 600 women have gone through the program and there have been zero preventable infant deaths. Win also helps direct women toward resources like stable housing and higher education.

Birth in Color, in partnership with Birth Equity Action & Research to Transform Health (BEARTH) Village, is working to address the Black maternal mortality crisis. The community-based organizations use research and cultural wisdom to dismantle inequities Black women face during birth. The groups provide free doula care to provide care and advocate for women in healthcare settings. There are currently 80 available doulas who help about 350 women give birth each year.

In Kern County, where pregnancy-related mortality rates are more than double the California average and Black mothers face life-threatening complications at nearly three times the rate of white women, community doulas are working to bridge the gap between patients and the medical system. Since California expanded Medi-Cal coverage to include doula services in January 2023, more than 1,400 doulas have enrolled statewide, with active training pipelines building the workforce locally.

In 2025, Bauchi State launched the Impact Project to address Nigeria's maternal health crisis by deploying 100 Skilled Birth Attendants across 20 Local Government Areas, alongside free delivery kits and regular salary payments to increase access to professional childbirth care.

The Mamacare Foundation has trained over 860 traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in hygiene, safe delivery practices, danger-sign recognition, and timely referral systems over the past decade to improve maternal care in the region. The program pairs each TBA with a supervising midwife, creating a collaborative bridge between traditional and modern maternal care. The training has increased referrals from TBAs to clinics by 40%, and district hospitals report fewer emergency cases arriving in critical condition since the Foundation has formed.