FERGUSON — The founder and director of Jamaa Birth Village in Ferguson began seven years ago working to improve maternity care and address the disparate health outcomes for Black families in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region.
That effort has grown from struggling moms meeting in her living room to last week purchasing land to build a new birth center and postpartum retreat in Ferguson.
will officially announce plans for construction of the 5,000-square-foot facility at a news conference Monday before supporters and officials representing the city of Ferguson, ºüÀêÊÓƵ and ºüÀêÊÓƵ County.
After it opens, women will be able to give birth in one of the center’s three birthing suites under care of a midwife, and they can continue to receive care after delivering their babies in four to six villas built around the center.
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“Our birth center is definitely different,†said Amadou, who recently changed her name from Brittany “Tru†Kellman.
This postpartum period is a precarious time for new moms and babies. About one-third of pregnancy-related deaths occur within one week after birth, and another one-third occur between one week and one year afterward, .
New moms are often sent home not knowing the signs of preeclampsia, hemorrhage, uterine infection or postpartum depression and where to go for help, Amadou said. At the new birth center, they and their partners can stay for a week, where they will continue to receive monitoring and education.
“It’s revolutionary in a sense,†Amadou said. “A lot of people have their babies and go home. They may have their other kids to think about and look after. They may start to pick up a broom and a mop. They are impeding their healing, and it’s not their fault.â€
One of the most glaring health disparities can be seen in the care of new moms and babies. Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, . Black babies are twice as likely to die before their first birthday.
The reason is a web of social factors including lack of access to health care, healthy food, transportation and safe housing. Bias and racism play a role. A found families of color experience higher rates of mistreatment by health care providers during birth, such as verbal abuse and delays in care.
The maternal mortality rate, already on the increase in the U.S., surged in 2020, particularly among Black and Hispanic women, released earlier this year.
In 2020, 861 women nationwide died during pregnancy or within 42 days after birth — up 14% from 2019, and a 30% increase from 2018. Pregnant women are at higher-risk from COVID-19, for those deaths.
Another 50,000 women each year suffer serious health consequences from delivering their babies, .
Birth centers that provide a have been shown to . Clients are far less likely have a preterm birth or cesarean section and are more likely to breastfeed.
The model is based on holistic, family-centered care with minimal medical interventions. Midwives provide continuous support throughout labor and birth.
There are more than 400 midwife-led birth centers across the U.S., a number that has more than doubled in the past decade. Jamaa will join a list that includes a center and the region’s only freestanding facility, in O’Fallon, Missouri.
“The buses don’t go over there,†Amadou said. “It’s not accessible to the people who are most vulnerable for prematurity, morbidity and mortality.â€
The Jamaa Birth Village Birth Center and Postpartum Retreat Haven will be built on an empty acre at the corner of Hereford and Cunningham avenues just north of downtown Ferguson, a couple blocks from Jamaa’s Equal Access Midwifery Clinic, which opened nearly two years ago and provides prenatal care, doula services and help with other social needs.
Jamaa clients currently either give birth at home with a midwife or under the care of another provider in a hospital.
Women will now have more choices, Amadou said.
“The type of care, the type of information and the type of support that is given and made available to white women no matter their income, no matter their education — it is not made available to Black women no matter our income, insurance type, ZIP code or education,†she said.
“We are going to give it to our community.â€
History of growth
Amadou’s difficult birth experience as a teen mother led her to study holistic wellness, yoga, aromatherapy and herbalism. She trained to become a doula, guiding women though labor, birth and newborn care.
She taught health classes at libraries, parks, community centers and her home in Ferguson. She gathered women into “sister circles†to heal and talk about trauma, relationships and birth experiences.
Two weeks in Ghana in 2013 inspired her to train to become a midwife. Amadou says that’s where she saw a vision of a birth village — a space where pregnant and new moms could seek comfort and support.
In 2015, she formed Jamaa (Swahili for family) as a nonprofit. Less than a year later, she opened a storefront on Church Street, where families could get books, clothes, diapers or breastfeeding supplies.
Jamaa grew to offer childbirth classes and support groups as well as massage and chiropractic care. Staff screened women for depression or anxiety and connected them to help with needs such as food, job training or transportation.
Amadou also created a geared toward providing unbiased and culturally appropriate care to Black women. Doulas to improve birth outcomes and communication with providers.
Jamaa soon needed a bigger space. Two retiring SSM Health internists happened to be closing their primary care clinic just a block away on North Florissant.
They donated most of the cost of the building to Jamaa. That location opened as a midwifery clinic in June 2020.
The warm and spa-like clinic offers all the same social services plus the full spectrum of prenatal care, including ultrasounds and blood work. The cost of care is offered on a sliding scale based on one’s income, which Amadou is able to do by piecing together grants and donations.
In its first year, despite the pandemic, the clinic cared for 353 clients: 99% carried their babies to full term, 97% avoided C-sections and 100% were breastfeeding after birth. There were no maternal or infant deaths.
Since 2016, Jamaa has trained nearly 200 Black women to serve as doulas.
“When people come here, they are like, ‘Wow.’ They feel really safe. We have a shared, lived experience. They can feel comfortable. They can be honest,†Amadou said, without fear of saying the wrong thing or being judged as a bad mother.
After opening the clinic, Amadou changed her name to represent her initiation as a priestess in the Isese religion, practiced by the Yoruba people in West Africa. She received traditional face markings as part of her initiation.
Two months ago, Amadou said she saw another vision. While it was always her plan to have a space where women could give birth, state rules and regulations have made it difficult. Her vision convinced her it was time.
“It was clear that our birth center was ready for us,†she said.
Birthing options
The pandemic increased interest in out-of-hospital births, according to studies of Internet search results and early birth data. Women feared exposure to the virus, visitor restrictions and separation from their babies if they tested positive for COVID-19.
A showed the number of home births rose from 38,506 in 2019 to 45,646 in 2020, an 18.5% increase. The 2020 total represented 1.26% of all births, the highest level since 1990. Black and Hispanic women saw the biggest increase.
In Missouri, the number of home births went from 1,069 in 2019 to 1,309 in 2020, a 23% increase, according to data provided by the state health department.
Another found a 9% increase in birth center births nationwide. In 2019, 238 Missouri residents gave birth in the state’s only licensed freestanding birth center in O’Fallon. That increased to 272 in 2020.
Amadou said she was flooded with calls early in the pandemic from people fearful to deliver in hospitals. That fear, however, has turned into more families becoming educated about their options.
“We are no longer fighting to be known,†Amadou said. “Now people are coming to us in droves, and we need a space that can reach that capacity.â€
Amadou is Missouri’s first Black Certified Professional Midwife, which specializes in home births, but that is not a credential recognized by insurance providers in most states.
When the new birth center opens, Amadou said she plans to hire two Certified Nurse Midwives, which would allow care to be reimbursed by Medicaid and other types of insurance.
Maternity health advocates are also working to extend Medicaid coverage, which covers nearly half of all births, to one year after giving birth. Women in Missouri currently lose coverage after 60 days.
“If we can now have a licensed, freestanding birth center in the communities that are most vulnerable to these disparities and Medicaid can reimburse for their births, it will save lives,†Amadou said.
She hopes to have the center’s main building done by Oct. 26, the day she formed Jamaa as a nonprofit seven years ago.
Jamaa has launched a to fund construction of the new center. The CannonDesign firm in ºüÀêÊÓƵ will lead a collaboration donating the design plan.
Funds will also be used to train 700 Ҡin how to support their pregnant friends and family, and help provide free or low-cost care to those who need it.
“There are so many reasons why the time is now,†Amadou said. “We are the solution for our people.â€
Originally posted at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10.