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May 2025
Volume 11 | Issue No. 96
The 2nd Annual Missouri Black Maternal
Health Summit opened with joy. Hosted
at Lincoln University, a historically Black
university in the heart of Jefferson City,
the summit intentionally centered Black
mamas, birth workers, and their allies
— not just as participants, but as the
movement's foundation.
In a state where Black women are two
and a half times more likely to die from
pregnancy-related complications than
white women, according to the Missouri
Department of Health and Senior Services'
Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review,
the summit doubled down on community-
led solutions that center joy, tradition, and
systemic change.
From the opening remarks by Princess
Stormm of St. Louis — longtime radio
personality and community advocate
who served as the summit's master of
ceremonies — to a curated musical
experience by DJ Onnie, the tone was set
for celebration, healing, and power.
Organizers, including the Missouri
Community Doula Council and Jamaa
Birth Village, emphasized that birth is not
simply a clinical event — it's a sacred
cultural and emotional journey.
"Our culture and heritage celebrates Black
parents, pregnancies, births, postpartum,
and parenting as a momentous journey,"
Jamaa Birth Village shared in a Facebook
post ahead of the summit. The event set
out to restore that truth, elevating birth
as something beautiful and deserving
protection — not simply survival.
"We will now be able to use it as a space to not
just teach, but to help end this maternal health
crisis that we're in."
READ MORE
- Michelle Browder, founder of the Mothers of
Gynecology Monument in Montgomery, Alabama.
