Birth justice envisions a world where every birthing person especially Black, Indigenous, and marginalized communitie —has access to safe, respectful, culturally-reverent care across the full spectrum of reproductive health. Through systemic transformation, we will realize a future where birth is a site of power, healing, and liberation for all.
The Birth Justice movement seeks to realize a world where midwifery care is widely accessible, where communities have the resources they need, and where every birthing person is treated with dignity and respect. This article explores that vision, grounding it in the values and history of birth justice.
I accept and acknowledge that I am a divine and fertile being living in an abundant universe. All of my needs are already supplied. A universal shift is happening, bringing balance to the inequities and injustices of this world. I am a midwife of this divine movement, helping to birth a more prosperous, loving earth.
-Jamarah Amani
The erasure, criminalization, and targeting of midwives lie at the heart of reproductive oppression. Before hospitals, people turned to midwives for birth control, abortion, miscarriage support, pregnancy, and birth. For Black and Indigenous communities, midwives were—and still are custodians of cultural knowledge and family safety. Birth justice is about divesting from systems that harm us and investing in those that heal. We situate this vision within global solidarity, recognizing that maternal health crises are not unique to the U.S. and that Black and Indigenous midwives worldwide are advancing parallel struggles for justice.
The well-being of mothers, parents, and children is one of the clearest reflections of a nation’s overall health. Yet despite spending more on maternal and infant care than many other countries, the U.S. continues to have some of the worst outcomes with a maternal death rate higher than almost every other high-income country—more than 2.5 times the rates of France and Canada, 3.5 times that of the UK, and 14 times higher than in Norway and New Zealand, despite much higher spending on maternal and infant care.
Outcomes are disproportionately negative for Black and Indigenous communities, who face maternal mortality rates two to four times higher than their white counterparts. These disparities are not accidental; they are the result of enduring legacies of colonization, Native genocide, and the under acknowledged African Holocaust—the mass loss and disruption of African lives through slavery, colonization, and racial violence. The legacy of this violence continues to shape the health and safety of communities today, as birthing individuals worldwide frequently encounter barriers to accessing essential, life saving healthcare, across US Southern rural Black communities and communities of color in the Global South.
To achieve birth justice, we must radically confront this history and change this reality, revolutionizing maternity care for Black mothers and birthing people worldwide.
The future of birth justice extends beyond today’s urgent struggles. Imagine a world where Black midwives’ contributions are not only recognized but celebrated as central to maternal health and human rights. Black midwives have long led the charge for equitable maternal care, advocating within communities and healthcare institutions alike. Their leadership drives systemic change, ensuring that birth justice is embedded within healthcare systems, not relegated to the margins.
As birth justice advocates, healers, and warriors, we fight for a future where reproductive autonomy is not dictated by location, race, or socioeconomic status. No one should have to cross state lines or country borders to access care. In our vision, midwifery and holistic birthing services are available in every community, ensuring that anyone seeking care can access it freely. As Mama Shafia, a grandmidwife of this movement, affirms: “There should be a midwife on every block.”
This vision aligns with a broader mission: creating a healthcare system that not only supports but celebrates pregnant, birthing, and parenting people. The Black Midwives Model of Care and other transformative practices must become the norm, not the exception. By doing this, we shift birth justice from aspiration to lived reality, ensuring equitable care for all regardless of geography, income, or identity.
Birth justice is more than a movement—it is a collective demand for systemic transformation. It is not about individual behavior change; it is about dismantling structures that harm communities. Our work is rooted in core values that guide every initiative, organization, and advocacy campaign, including:
Our work includes recording the historical decimation of the Black and Indigenous midwifery workforce and centering LGBTQIA+ communities in birth justice advocacy. We are committed to reclaiming Black and Indigenous cultural wisdom and life-saving practices while rejecting medical models that treat Black, Brown, and Indigenous bodies as inherently at risk. We also shift stereotypical narratives of health inequities to ones about power and structural violence, and elevate the original Birth Justice Framework, grassroots organizations, and early advocates who laid the foundation for this movement.
Midwifery care is holistic, healing, and humanistic. It has a rich herstory and legacy in communities of color.
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