The Community Midwifery Fund (CMF) partners with individuals, organizations, and communities that embrace the process of birth as a path towards increased interconnection and empowerment for mother, child, family, and community. Our goal is to increase marginalized women’s access to midwifery care and services, as well as to support the development of community midwifery projects that are led by low income women and women of color and that seek to create a holistic paradigm for birthing, reproductive health, girls’ leadership development, and community empowerment. CMF is housed at the Groundswell Fund, which mobilizes new funding and capacity-building resources to reproductive justice efforts led by low income women and women of color. Groundswell considers birthing rights to be a core component of the reproductive justice framework and believes that access to quality midwifery care is a basic human right that should be available to all, regardless of race, age or economic status.

In October 2013, Groundswell hosted a two day convening in Petaluma, CA, for practitioners and leaders within the midwifery and reproductive justice communities to build relationship with each other, laying the groundwork for increased trust and shared work. Although an unlikely goal for a funder, we believe relationship-building is at the core of impactful, transformative work—just as it is at the core of a midwifery-facilitated birth process. It had been years since members of these two communities had come together intentionally, and participants emerged with renewed commitment to their work and strong desires to collaborate with each other. The group generated some exciting new ways to be in relationship to each other, and we were honored to host such a generative and authentic conversation.

In these videos, representatives from three Groundswell grantees share stories of their work, their experience of this convening, and their vision for a world in which reproductive justice is achieved and all people have access to empowering birth and parenting experiences. We hope their stories inspire you as much as they do us.

Learn more about the Community Midwifery Fund.

Interviewed:
Pia Long, Board Member, West Virginia FREE
Farah Diaz-Tello, National Advocates for Pregnant Women
Shafia Monroe, International Center for Traditional Childbearing