The Power and Necessity of Black Doulas: Protecting Mothers and Babies

Black Maternal Health Week always brings up a lot for me.

We hear the numbers. We hear that Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth.

But what doesn’t get talked about enough is what that actually looks like in real life and who it impacts beyond the mother.

Because when Black mothers aren’t protected, their babies aren’t protected either.

And neither are their families.

A lot of these situations do not start as emergencies. They start as small moments that get missed.

A mother says something does not feel right. She is in pain. She notices a change in her body.

And instead of being taken seriously, she is told to wait. Or it is brushed off. Or there is no urgency.

But in pregnancy and birth, timing matters.

When there is a delay, it does not just affect her. It affects her baby too.

And this is where we have to be honest about what the data has been showing for years. Black babies are still more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday. We also continue to see higher rates of preterm birth and low birth weight, which are often connected to stress on the body, delayed care, and concerns not being acted on quickly enough.

And then there is the part people do not sit with long enough.

When a mother dies, the impact does not stop there.

There is a partner who just lost their person. There is a father now raising a newborn while grieving. There are children growing up without their mother.

Families do not just move on from that. They have to rebuild from it.

Charles Johnson’s story is one of the clearest examples of how this happens.

He and his wife, Kira, went into the hospital expecting to bring their second baby home. Her pregnancy had been healthy. The delivery was supposed to be routine.

Their son was born healthy.

But after her C section, Kira started showing signs that something was wrong. Charles noticed. He spoke up. He kept asking for help.

Help was delayed.

By the time doctors acted, she had been bleeding internally for hours.

He walked into that hospital with his wife and left alone with two sons.

At one point, Charles said, “I felt like I was begging them to save her life.”

That should never be part of anyone’s birth story.

This is not just one story.

Dr. Janell Green Smith, a Black midwife who dedicated her life to supporting mothers, died from complications after giving birth to her own baby. She understood the system. She worked in it. She advocated for women every day. And she still did not make it home.

Her baby is here. She is not.

Things get missed. Concerns are not taken seriously. Care is delayed.

And the outcome changes everything.

Not just for the mother, but for the baby and the entire family.

This is why Black doulas matter.

Not as something extra. Not as a luxury.

But as real, needed support in a system that does not always respond the way it should.

A Black doula is there to support you, but also to pay attention.

To notice when something feels off. To ask questions. To slow things down when needed. To help make sure you are actually being heard.

Sometimes it is not about doing more. It is about not letting something get overlooked.

And as we have seen, those moments matter.

We have to stop treating this like it is optional.

Because when you look at the full picture, mothers, babies, partners, families, it becomes clear.

This is necessary.

Black babies deserve better outcomes too.

They deserve to be born into situations where their mothers are listened to the first time. Where concerns are taken seriously. Where there is support in the room that does not hesitate to speak up.

As someone who works closely with the body and with healing every day through my work at Amuure Holistic Healing, I see how much people carry when something is missed, physically and emotionally. Birth is no different. It deserves the same level of care, attention, and respect from the very beginning.

So during Black Maternal Health Week, this is what I keep coming back to.

We cannot just talk about survival. We have to talk about prevention.

Because the truth is, all of these deaths are preventable.

And being heard should never be the thing that determines who makes it home.

But right now, it still is.