01/05/2026
Dr. Janell Green-Smith was a nurse midwife, and she died in childbirth.
That sentence stops you cold, because it makes no sense in the way that loss sometimes refuses to make sense. A nurse midwife is trained for this. She knows the science, the physiology, the risks, the warning signs, the clinical language, the rhythms of normal labor and the speed at which things can change. If knowledge could guarantee safety, she should have been protected.
And yet, she did not make it home.
There is grief in every maternal loss, but this one carries a particular weight. Not because her life is more valuable than anyone else’s, but because her training reminds us how fragile the assumption of safety can be. Even for someone who dedicated her life to bringing others through birth. Even for someone who understood, intimately, what can happen.
We do not know the details of what led to her death, and we should not speculate. What we do know is that a family has been shattered in a moment that should have been filled with joy. A baby has entered the world without the steady love that should have been waiting on the other side. A community has lost a healer, a professional, a woman whose work was rooted in care.
And it forces a reckoning that is bigger than any one story.
So when we ask, “How do we prevent another family from experiencing this kind of heartbreak,” the answer cannot be a single thing. It has to be a braided commitment.
It looks like no one navigating pregnancy or postpartum alone. It looks like care that stays close after delivery, with timely follow up and a clear path to urgent help when something feels wrong. It looks like culturally humble systems that move fast, without barriers or delay.
It also looks like a cultural shift. Women are encouraged to speak up early, and concern is met with respect. Care teams are supported to listen well, act decisively, and lead with humility. Safety is not left to luck, privilege, proximity, or insider knowledge.
Because birth should be sacred, safe, and supported.
Dr. Janell Green-Smith’s name deserves tenderness and resolve. Not as a symbol, but as a life. Her story should sharpen our insistence that maternal outcomes must change with urgency equal to what is at stake.
We will grieve. But, we won’t give up.
❤️ 🕊️
