Southern Birth Justice Network

ABOUT SBJN

The Southern Birth Justice Network (SBJN) is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt, nonprofit organization that works to improve access to community-based midwifery and doula care through its perinatal services, workforce development and community advocacy. To address maternal health disparities in Black, Brown, youth, immigrant, indigenous, LGBTQ+ and low-income communities we organize various programs, such as our midwifery and doula training programs, community outreach and educational programs and provide forums for community storytelling.  One of these programs includes the independently produce, original documentary,  Legacy Power Voice: Movements in Black Midwifery.

SBJN 2023 Organizational Highlights

Three Groundbreaking Innovative Programs:

2023 has been full of exciting new developments! In January, SBJN'S Mobile Midwife Clinic (MMC), an innovative mobile outreach program,  operating in Miami-Dade County, began operating in underserved communities to ensure that birthing people and families receive quality perinatal screenings and referrals. Mobile Midwife staff, composed of local midwives, doulas, volunteers, interns, and students also distributed diapers, menstrual and postpartum supplies, and taught free childbirth education and nutrition classes. 

The National Black Midwives Alliance (NBMA), a program of SBJN, hosted its inaugural celebration of Black Midwives Day on March 14, 2023 with a one day virtual conference and screening that attracted over 1000 participants from across the United States. NBMA, founded in 2018, also celebrates the continued growth of its mentorship program and scholarship fund. Building on a partnership that SBJN began in 2022, this year, NBMA facilitated a Black Birth Worker Learning Exchange trip to Zanzibar, Tanzania with a group of fifteen US midwives, student midwives, doulas and maternal health advocates to support WAJAMAMA, a holistic health clinic and fitness program focusing on women’s health and maternal healthcare programs. We are building partnerships through an exchange of resources, knowledge and people across international boundaries.

Through the creation of the BirthTrak App, developed in partnership with the Florida Department of Health, Miami-Dade we pioneer solutions to widen access to maternal health resources.. This pregnancy companion software helps identify preventative health practices, supporting wellness with targeted trimester goals and a tracker which monitors nutrition, hydration, fitness and mindfulness.

Press:

Acknowledging Black Midwives As An Essential Part Of Black Maternal Healthcare. NewsOne 

 She made me feel seen and heard. USAToday.com

The Black Mothers Care Plan of South Florida. FIU Center for Women's and Gender Studies

Advocacy coalition Black in Repro is training women to lobby legislators, educate their communities and build alliances. The 19th*

Beyond “patient-provider race matching.” Black midwives clarify a vision for race-concordant care to achieve equity in Black perinatal health: A commentary on “Do Black birthing persons prefer a Black health care provider during birth? Race concordance in birth.”  Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care.

What about our own right to life? Abortion bans threaten Black maternal health | Opinion. The Miami Herald.

Partnerships:

The Black Maternal and Infant Health Equity Collaborative (BMIHEC) is groundbreaking community initiative in which SBJN serves as a lead agency in partnership with Jackson Health System, Metro Mommy Agency, Magnolia Birth House and YWCA. Through this collaboration, SBJN will pilot a doula training program that will service labor and delivery wards at Jackson Memorial Hospital, the largest public hospital in the country. This initiative also includes training for hospital based practitioners on the tenants of the birth justice framework. We believe this type of cross sector model will build health equity infrastructure by enhancing the doula workforce. The targeted outcome of this intervention aims at breaking existing silos within healthcare institutions and addresses existing social determinants affecting Black mothers and birthing people.