Jamaa Birth Village

Jamaa Birth Village The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center envisions a world where birth is sacred, communal and grounded in ancestral wisdom.

We preserve & elevate African diasporic midwifery through care, cultural preservation, education and advocacy. For more information please call 314-643-7703 or visit JamaaBirthVillage.org

Prior to pregnancy apps and comment sections full of opinions, there were elders, wisdom speakers and trusted companions...
02/20/2026

Prior to pregnancy apps and comment sections full of opinions, there were elders, wisdom speakers and trusted companions who held knowledge for us without the thought of monetizing your presence.

Our elders and close ones had trusted wise lived experiences, they had observation. They didn’t have hot takes driven by the algorithm.

They knew that rest was not laziness.
That warm nourishing food crafted by loving hands mattered deeply.
They knew that who you allow around you affects how you heal.
And they knew profoundly that birth is not only physical, but a deeply spiritual and life altering experience.

A lot of what feels “new” today is actually very old.

What’s one piece of advice you heard from an elder about pregnancy, birth, or postpartum that still holds true for you?

Postpartum is sacred. It is physical, it is emotional, it is spiritual, and it deserves to be held with care, not rushed...
02/19/2026

Postpartum is sacred. It is physical, it is emotional, it is spiritual, and it deserves to be held with care, not rushed through.

For generations, our communities understood that healing required rest, warm food, trusted hands, and protection from unnecessary stress. Postpartum was a time to be covered, not exposed.

Birth justice does not end at delivery. It continues in how we support a mother and family after the baby arrives.

If you could tell every new mother one truth about postpartum that you wish someone told you, what would it be?

Joy Korley has served on Jamaa’s board since 2022, completing her term this year with us, after assisting in elevating o...
02/18/2026

Joy Korley has served on Jamaa’s board since 2022, completing her term this year with us, after assisting in elevating our work over the past 4-years.✨

Joy’s work is founded in devotion to women, their bodies, their choices, their stories, and their futures.

A graduate of Jamaa’s Birth Village Community Doula Full-Spectrum Program, Class of 2019, Joy stepped into birthwork with clarity and conviction. Her ambitions to support, educate, advocate, and walk alongside women through some of the most intimate and transformative moments of their lives, is admirable.

As a L & D nurse, s*x educator, full-spectrum doula, and self-described womanhood connoisseur, Joy brings both reverence and realness to her work. She understands that care is not one-size-fits-all and that education, consent, and compassion are foundational to true empowerment.

Joy is also building toward what is next. With her sights set on becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife, she represents the future of care that is informed, community-centered, and unapologetically woman-forward.

Her motto is: “I am women. I am for women. And I am with women”, is practice in motion.

We are honored to have Joy Korley in this work on the Board of Directors and remain grateful for the heart, intention, and leadership she brings to our community.💜

The art & practice of Black midwifery stretches across continents, oceans, and generations.From West and Central Africa ...
02/17/2026

The art & practice of Black midwifery stretches across continents, oceans, and generations.

From West and Central Africa to the Caribbean, to the American South, Black midwives have carried knowledge that sustained families through slavery, segregation, migration, and modern medical systems.

Their work was clinical, communal, it was spiritual, and it shaped maternal health as we know it.

Join us for Global History of Black Midwifery
Wednesday, February 18 at 12PM EST/1PM CST for a Virtual session.

We will explore the lineage, the resistance, and the impact of Black midwives across the diaspora.

Registration is open on the Library Research Institute page at: jamaabirthvillage.org/black-midwifery-library-research-institute/.

02/17/2026

Black midwives have always been pillars of the community.

They were and still are, healers, teachers, advocates, and protectors. Since antiquity, Black midwives have carried knowledge that sustained families through generations, often without recognition, often without protection, but always with commitment.

During Black History Month, we remember that Black history is not only found in movements and monuments. It is found in birth rooms, at kitchen tables, on front porches, and in the quiet, steady hands of midwives who made sure life continued.

The work of preserving and uplifting Black midwifery is not nostalgia or a trend-it is necessary and apart of the continual flow of bringing forth new life.

Honoring Black midwives is why we built a museum.

It is why we teach at Okunsola’s School of Traditional Midwifery.

It is why we gather upon the couches and desks at our Black Midwifery Library Research Institute.

Black midwives were and remain foundational to community health and cultural survival and the thriving of midwifery wisdom.

As we honor Black History Month, we honor the lineage of care that carried us here and continues to shape the future.

🎥 (follow her for unfiltered and decoded history)

Some stories were never meant to be lost in time and no longer shared, as midwifery wisdom remains deeply and increasing...
02/12/2026

Some stories were never meant to be lost in time and no longer shared, as midwifery wisdom remains deeply and increasingly valuable over time. We’re here to ensure our stories are told through our voices, experiences and lives, for generations to come.

“African American Midwifery in the South” by Gertrude Jacinta Fraser preserves the voices, memories, and lived experiences of Black midwives whose work shaped families, communities, and survival in the Southern United States.

This text reminds us that midwifery has always been deeply woven into culture, resistance, and communal care. It is memory carried through storytelling and practice.

This book is available for in-library access and research at the African Indigenous Midwifery Library and Research Institute, where these histories are held with care and intention.

02/12/2026

Jamaa-the revolutionary home of Missouri’s First Black Certified Professional Midwife & Black CPM Preceptor, and First Black Midwifery Clinic, School & Museum💜✊🏾

Stepping back in time to an interview on the Nine PBS Donnie Brook show in 2023, featuring Jamaa Birth Village Founder-Okunsola M. Amadou-on the origins of the Black Doula & Black Midwifery movement in St. Louis, Missouri.

✨In this short interview, she lays the landscape and importance of our mission, vision, purpose and values, through the historical significance, advocacy and community work of Jamaa, that persisted, demanded and provided the blueprint for communal midwives as a solution to improving birth outcomes, alongside doulas as care companions.

💜This Black History Month, we remember when there were only 5-Black practicing doulas in St. Louis, and zero Black midwives or Black maternal health organizations, due to stereotypical, financial and racial nuances consisting of systemic erasure policies & laws that proliferated in the early 1900s.

✨Today, because of the groundbreaking work, training programs, and bold stance at Jamaa, that Black women and families deserve the best level of risk appropriate cultural care-the St. Louis region has now grown to honor, welcome and uplift Black Midwives and Doulas across all sectors.

💜We are honored to be Black History, and to have wholeheartedly restored Birthworker lineages by training nearly 500-doulas, soon to welcome 20-new midwifery students this Fall, making communal care visible, accessible and a norm, where these lineages were previously fractured, unavailable, inaccessible and blocked by healthcare institutions across our state.

We are Black History today, and everyday, inspiring future generations to come!✊🏾💜✨

🎥Full interview: https://youtu.be/0FocIEc6JQU

There are people who choose this work, and then there are people who are called to it. Patricia Garcia is the latter. We...
02/11/2026

There are people who choose this work, and then there are people who are called to it. Patricia Garcia is the latter. We’re deeply honored that Pati was called to be a Midwife, and has dedicated her time & expertise to serve on the board of Jamaa Birth Village since 2023.

Her journey into midwifery started with dreams of catching babies. With listening and honoring a calling that felt bigger than comfort and bigger than fear, Pati stepped into her power as a midwife. What began as doula work back in 2007 grew into decades of care across the full spectrum of reproductive and family experiences, from miscarriage and abortion to pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and womb surgeries.

Pati has supported over 300 births, working in homes and birth centers across California and Trinidad and Tobago. Her care is founded in traditional midwifery, holistic bodywork, and a deep respect for the body’s wisdom. She brings both clinical excellence and ancestral knowledge to every space she enters, with a commitment to preserving midwifery traditions for future generations.

As a q***r, nonbinary midwife of color with Mexican and Peruvian roots, Pati leads with intention and openness. She believes deeply that people deserve to be met as they are, especially those who are often pushed to the margins of mainstream medical systems, including trans individuals seeking affirming birth care.

We are honored to have Patricia Garcia on Jamaa’s Board of Directors. Her wisdom, lived experience, and heart for community expand what leadership and care can look like, and we are better for it.

Thank you for being with us, Patricia. We’re grateful you’re here. 💜

Yam pepper stew and so many other African Indigenous meals are multi-layered, comfort, nourishment and healing staples.A...
02/10/2026

Yam pepper stew and so many other African Indigenous meals are multi-layered, comfort, nourishment and healing staples.

Across West African traditions, yams are a sacred food that aid in pre-conception harmony, pregnancy comfort, and postpartum recovery. Yams are grounding, nourishing, and deeply connected to fertility, strength, and renewal. Cooked slowly with warming spices and good oils, Yam stew was often prepared to support the womb, build energy, and help the body feel steady and held.

This is the kind of food meant to warm you from the inside, support circulation, and remind the body that it is safe to rest and receive nourishment.

We’re sharing some nourishment tips, cultural meal wisdom and recipes from the lineage of African Indigenous food ways. The biggest secret to enjoyment-eat your meals slowly, let the nourishment settle, and notice how your body responds.

This is deep cultural and ancestral care.

02/09/2026

This is the heart of community care.

In African Indigenous traditions, children are not raised in isolation. They are held by many hands, watched by many eyes, and loved by more than one household. Why? Because it’s always been that way, since the beginning of time, up until the colonialism and the modern industrialization movement, that forced families to be torn and live a part, work far from home, and wade through life-alone.

In African Indigenous traditions, children have many mommies, dadas, aunties, uncles, siblings, and grandparents. It’s a cultural richness, that is inexplainable at times. This shared responsibility is how safety, belonging, and resilience are built.

When we say “it takes a village,” this is what we mean. We don’t mean perfect aesthetically pleasing communities and relationships, shared relationships that are only convenient and not deeply woven together, worked on and cherished, nor do we mean non-reciprocal care, love and support.

When we say “it takes a village,” we mean-just people showing up for one another with sincerity, genuineness, care, and authentic reciprocity without performance.

This is the kind of community Jamaa exists to protect, restore, and pass forward.

Repost from
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My neighbors child is my child and my child is my neighbors child. It takes little sacrifices as this to build community. This can only be built when everyone in the community holds genuineness at heart.

Some people practice midwifery, while some spend their lives protecting its legacy, origins and truths.🌿Okunsola M. Amad...
02/06/2026

Some people practice midwifery, while some spend their lives protecting its legacy, origins and truths.🌿

Okunsola M. Amadou, Jamaa’s recently retired Founder, who stewards the transitional leadership team as Founder in Residence-is someone who answered a calling early, served deeply, and then made the brave decision to step away from westernized systems to ensure ancient midwifery knowledge was not lost.

After more than a decade of clinical midwifery, she chose to dedicate her life to cultural preservation, ancestral research, and the protection of precolonial and prehistoric midwifery traditions across the world.

Her leadership has shaped Black Maternal Health in tangible ways, from opening Missouri’s first Black-led midwifery clinic to certifying hundreds of Black doulas and influencing policy at local, state, and national levels. But, her work has always extended beyond institutions, with her foundations in activating Priestess Midwife lineages, rituals, and sacred history through her midwifery training framework’s.

Today, through the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum and Library and Research Institute, Okunsola’s work spanning 2-decades, continues to document the sacred stories, ceremonies, and practices of ancestral & pioneering midwives, ensuring this wisdom is preserved as living cultural heritage for future generations.

As Board President Emeritus & Founder in Residence, her presence reminds us that birthwork is not only clinical, it is spiritual, it is historical, and it is sacred cultural care.

We are honored to walk alongside her legacy. This is Black History.✨

Lately, we’ve been spending time with Women’s Wisdom from the Heart of Africa by Sobonfu Somé.This audiobook carries tea...
02/05/2026

Lately, we’ve been spending time with Women’s Wisdom from the Heart of Africa by Sobonfu Somé.

This audiobook carries teachings about womanhood, community, ritual, and the ways knowledge is passed through lived experience. It’s the kind of listening that invites you to slow down and really sit with what’s being shared.

This title is part of the African Indigenous Midwifery Library and Research Institute collection and is available for in-library listening and research access.

These are the voices we return to when remembering how care, wisdom, and community have always been held for childbearing women, elders and girls coming into womanhood across the ages.

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St. Louis, MO

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+13146437703

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