The Missouri Community Doula Council
MISSION:
We advocate for Missouri’s most vulnerable families by ensuring access to culturally congruent, community-based doula services for Black women.
Research has shown that the use of doulas does result in the improvement of perinatal outcomes for families. Black women need doulas that see, hear, and understand them and that can help them navigate the murky waters of our current health system.
We understand the tremendous role that systemic racism plays in health inequity. As the Missouri Community Doula Council, we understand that restoration and transformation are needed to heal our broken healthcare system. Doulas caring for families must understand the full spectrum of risk that birthing bodies face when they enter this system of care.
Culturally Congruent Community-based Doulas (CCCDs) provide care in a way that is nurturing, relevant and familiar for those receiving it. We are working to ensure that Black pregnant women receive this level of care in their Missouri communities, and that doulas providing these services are accessible to all families, paid their worth, protected and uplifted.
OUR GOALS:
Providing amplitude for the state discourse on maternal & infant health.
Supporting candidates of color as they pursue careers in the doula profession.
Serving as a vanguard for perinatal innovation and problem-solving.
Standing as a resource for others who desire insights into our community values and cultures.
Representing the concerns and desires of communities of color in Black maternal and infant health in the state of Missouri.
Promoting doula science as a topic of increased study and understanding in the social and biosciences.
Working to eliminate barriers to doulas in communities of color.
Promoting culturally congruent care models for communities of color among doula service providers.
Illuminating the doula profession with the presence of state level leadership of color.
Because Black women need doulas that see, hear, and understand them and that can help them navigate the murky waters of our current health system.
MEMBERS:
Okunsola Amadou, CPM, CD, CLC
FERGUSON, MO
Hakima Payne, MSN, RN
KANSAS CITY, MO
Erica Dickson, CD
COLUMBIA, MO
Cynthia Dean, CEO
BOOTHEEL, MO
CONTACT:
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ORGANIZATIONS:
Jamaa Birth Village provides culturally-congruent Doula & traditional Midwifery care. Our two-year family care model brings together evidence-based Midwifery + Doula Care, Perinatal Mental Health Support, Breastfeeding Education, Holistic Therapies, Childbirth Education, Family Support Services and so much more!
Uzazi Village is a nonprofit organization dedicated to decreasing maternal and infant health inequity among Black and Brown communities. Through education, support, and advocacy, Uzazi Village works to improve perinatal health in the Kansas City community and around the country.
The Mid-Missouri Black Doula Collective is breaking ground as the first Black Doula cohort in Columbia. The cohort brings together 10 doulas with a common goal: educate women about their choices during childbirth and personalize a phenomenon that’s gone from home to hospital.
The mission of Missouri Bootheel Regional Consortium, Inc. (MBRC) is to strengthen, promote, and empower families and communities through quality programs that emphasize results, including a new Doula care and Doula training program in their region.