Birth Your Way exists to connect expecting parents to community resources to support and educate expecting parents of their options to having a healthy and successful pregnancy and delivery.
To further support Black and Minority maternal health, Birth Your Way is fundraising to provide scholarships for Black midwives in Pittsburgh. The scholarship covers tuition fees for Black women to attend Commonsense Childbirth School of Midwifery, a Black midwife college designed to enable students to gain the knowledge and skills needed to become highly competent midwives. We are asking community members, partners, and leaders to invest in the future of Black birth and make this dream a reality.
The 2019 Pittsburgh Gender Equality Report revealed that Black women’s maternal mortality rate is higher in Pittsburgh than in 97% of similar cities. Black birthing women are dying from complications that are 60% preventative compared to white counterparts. Unfortunately, in a city with merits for being medically advanced with superior health care systems, Black birthing women are not reaping the benefit of being residents in the most livable city. Pittsburgh is rated as one of the worst cities for Black women to give birth.
Racism, blatant, passive-aggressive, microaggressions, and complicit biases directly correlate between Black women and infants dying or surviving. Since the Gender Equality release, many organizations have attempted to combat these statistics with new doula community programs, town hall meetings, and other services created to address this national health crisis.