Birth Center Equity

I am applying for The Elevate Prize to increase my capacity to serve my community of Black, Indigenous and people of color birth center leaders and to amplify the collective impact of our work to improve birth outcomes in our communities. Community birth centers provide safe, culturally-reverent, midwifery-led maternal health care for all. We are working to create a world in which every community has access to a birth center. I am purpose-centered, results-focused, and self-aware – and I am also an introvert who until now has never embraced the spotlight. Realizing the vision of Birth Center Equity requires me to step out of my behind-the-scenes strategist comfort zone to make visible the leadership and impact of Black, Indigenous, and other women of color birth center leaders, and expand our relationships to grow economic, political, and cultural power. I hope that the Elevate Prize will offer me resources, coaching and support to grow confident in strategic and purpose-centered visibility, and to inspire other Black women to take risks to follow their dreams. I welcome the opportunity to join an international community of changemakers, explore new partnerships and access new resources to grow abundant community birth infrastructure for generations to come. 

I am a public health leader with a business mind and a visionary heart, holding love as a guiding value, a way of being, an action, and a politic. I am Co-founder of Birth Detroit and Birth Center Equity, a mom and a tireless advocate for work that makes communities stronger, healthier and more free.

I lead a team of birth workers, birth advocates, and community leaders planning Detroit’s first freestanding community birth center Birth Detroit, and am proud to be part of the launch of Birth Center Equity to grow and sustain birth centers led by Black, Indigenous and people of color across the country. I have two decades of leadership experience in city, state and national health organizations, having served as interim executive director of Birthing Project USA, Deputy Director of Public Health for the City of Detroit, and as a consultant in the development of Michigan’s first comprehensive LGBTQ health center.

I earned my undergraduate degree in Women’s Studies, then a Masters in Public Health with a certificate in Women’s and Reproductive Health, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

I am a Michigander by birth and a global citizen in spirit. 

Birth Center Equity (BCE), the first and only network of birth centers led by Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, boldly addresses the US maternal health crisis by strengthening and growing BIPOC-led community birth centers. 

According to the American Medical Association, “At 17.4 deaths per 100,000 live births, our nation suffers from a higher rate of maternal mortality than any other developed country … Black women are at least three times more likely than white women to die as a result of pregnancy.” 

Launched during Black Maternal Health Week 2020, BCE was founded by two Black women -- Nashira Baril (Neighborhood Birth Center, Boston) and Leseliey Welch, Birth Detroit -- who know first hand the structural inequity endemic to the US health system. Research demonstrates that freestanding birth centers improve birth outcomes, enhance the birth experience, and are cost-saving and reduce health disparities. Nonetheless, communities of color remain woefully behind the rest of the nation in access to birth centers. Of the nearly 400 freestanding birth centers in the US, less than 5% are owned or led by Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). BCE is breaking down financial barriers to grow wellness in every community. 

Birth Center Equity is innovative because we are: 1) Led by Black women in a world where Black women have been systematically and intentionally excluded and devalued in maternal health, health care, and finance. Our network is made up of 30 community birth centers in 19 states and Washington, DC. Twenty-six of our centers are Black-led, four are Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander-led. We identified and coalesced this vibrant network through word-of-mouth and relationship building. Prior to this, there was no list or organizing body for BIPOC birth centers; 2) Centering community and the midwifery model of care in birthing, which is urgent to address poor maternal health and ensure that all birthing people feel safe, seen, respected and well-cared for. 3) Transforming narrative and culture by centering the powerful stories and leadership of BIPOC birth center leaders. 4) Growing BIPOC women’s economic self-determination and community wealth through a full spectrum capital approach that generates possibility and meets community needs with smart and creative strategies that include a diversity of capital forms beyond traditional philanthropy. 

Centering BIPOC birthing wisdom and joy in BIPOC communities is crucial to the emotional, physical, and spiritual health of BIPOC communities, BIPOC cultural, political, and economic self-determination, and the wellness of our nation and the world. Centering BIPOC birthing wisdom and joy is also a matter of life and death. At a time when disparities in maternal and infant mortality persist in communities of color, and an increasing number of perinatal clinics and labor and delivery hospitals close, access to community-based midwifery care is more important than ever. BIPOC-led community birth centers are answering this call, organizing to meet community needs for safe, quality, culturally reverent prenatal, postpartum and birth care, and joining with the global midwifery community to transform what care must mean for everyone in every community.

BCE works with and for BIPOC birth center leaders to collectively access full spectrum capital at scale (Capital); nurture beliefs, practices, and models of abundance among community birth centers (Catalyst); and build beloved communities with caregiving, regeneration, and mutuality at the heart of our health system and our economy (Community). To date, Birth Center Equity (BCE) has raised nearly $1 million for BIPOC-led community birth centers.