About Granny’s Birth Initiative

We hold the belief that maternal support is a fundamental right for all individuals who give birth. Those who are incarcerated, orphaned, displaced, or have a darker complexion should not face neglect or prejudice in their pursuit of this essential support.

Our Grannies

We named our organization in honor of our Grand/Granny midwives who paved the way for birth communities & professionals today.

Our Granny Midwives acted as both community healers and baby catchers to the communities not accepted by society. They were the lifeline for black and rural communities. As their profession was colonized, their names were washed from history. Granny’s Birth Initiative is named after those that cared for all. We will carry on the legacy while ensuring black and brown birthing people have a safe space as we fight the Black Infant & Maternal Health Crisis and the challenges of transitioning through the penal, child welfare, and transitional housing systems.

Our Mission

Granny’s Birth Initiative seeks to support disenfranchised birthing families often overlooked due to societal shame or lack of acceptance. It is the birthing people that are BIPOC, incarcerated or homeless girls/women, those in foster care or transitioning out that are often forgotten about or served with judgment.

Vision

A society that develops resources to promote maternal & infant health equity by reducing barriers and improving access to maternal support, childbirth education, doulas, and lactation, even in cases where the mother-baby pair has been separated.

Goal

Our goal is to create access to Doula and lactation support, birth education, legal support, and other resources that are the key tools in our fight to decrease maternal and infant mortality in Black and other marginalized communities.

Our First Steps

No one should have to birth alone, even behind bars or shackled. Dignity Bill 1, passed in 2018 deemed shackling during labor yet so many express this is their experience. One, many are not educated on their new right, and the staffing of this system remains ignorant of the law. We want to provide doulas not only to advocate but to educate both the prison population and staffing.