Jamaa Birth Village

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Jamaa Birth Village

The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center envisions a world where birth is sacred, community-led, and rooted in ancestral wisdom.

We preserve and elevate African Indigenous midwifery through care, culture, education, and advocacy. For more information please call 314-643-7703 or visit JamaaBirthVillage.org

09/28/2025

We are honored and in awe of how community continues to show up for us at Jamaa. Big thanks to simiya and Scott for their amazing artistry and work for our new mural.

We’re looking forward to telling the stories of midwives whose legacies deserve light, honor and sacred preservation.

This is day 6 progress, and we’re 1-week away from the completion of this phase.💜

Repost spiritscapesss

✨ 6 days working on the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum & Library mural and we are almost there!!! ✨

09/27/2025

We will continue to dream with movement and forward motion.

“Dreams and reality are opposites. action Synthesizes them.”-Assata Shakur

We will continue uplift, teach, preserve and honor the true heritage, ways, and beingness of motherhood, of midwives and the practice of true midwifery.

“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.” -Assata Shakur

We are honored to walk alongside our youth, mothers, fathers, elders and our community, in empowering themselves boldly, through our rich cultural heritage.

“Revolution is about change, and the first place change begins is in yourself.” -Assata Shakur

Rest in love and honor Assata Shakur. Our guide, our truth teller, our way opener and our blueprint to the collective revolution.🕊️🤍🕯️

-Jamaa💜✊🏾💜

09/26/2025

A sacred space where families received care, knowledge, and community.

Today, we’re transforming that same building and sacred space into something even bigger, The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center, home of the world’s first African Indigenous Midwifery Museum and Black Midwife Library & Research Institute.

Four Fridays from today-we’ll celebrate our Grand Reopening with our trusted partners, funders, families and team.

Stay tuned as we give birth to the new Jamaa!

🎥 Film Director:
🎥:

09/25/2025

Chicago Beyond announced today that it will be investing a ✨$1 million✨ multi-year grant, into The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center, significant resources that will strengthen our ability to achieve our mission.

Chicago Beyond’s contribution is a testament to our impactful work, and we are excited to leverage these resources and this new partnership in support of our mothers, children, and communities.

This funding will support:
✨Full scholarships for Okunsola’s School of Traditional Midwifery
✨Rural midwifery and doula care access across Missouri
✨Family doula trainings at Jamaa
✨And so much more!

We’re deeply honored and excited to continue this momentous work!

09/24/2025

✨We’re 30-Days from opening the world’s 1st museum fully dedicated to celebrating, honoring, preserving and uplifting African Indigenous Midwifery!✨

Today we invite you to come along a journey with us in getting to know AIMM’s Advisory Council members:

💜Linda Janet Holmes: Writer, Biographer, Oral Historian, Curator and author of “Safe in a Midwife’s Hands”

💜 Mama Sarahn Henderson: Indigenous-African American born, Direct Entry Midwife & Midwife Historian

💜Nana Janet Sula Evans: Mamisi (Priestess of Mami Wata) & Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Congo Square Preservation Society

💜 Sara Makeba Daise, MA: Black, q***r, fifth-generation Gullah Geechee Writer, Griot, Cultural Worker and Diviner from Lowcountry SC

💜 Jamarah Amani: Black, femme and q***r community midwife, Executive Director of Southern Birth Justice Network, and co-founder of National Black Midwives Alliance

💜 Okunsola M. Amadou: Midwife, visionary educator, cultural strategist and founder of Jamaa Birth Village

💜 Mother Health International: Committed to improving birth outcomes in areas where the burden of mortality is highest in Uganda

Our council will support Jamaa in stewarding our collections ethically, sourcing our artifacts, books and media through sacred intention, while guiding AIMM’s cultural structure, balance and member/guest experience.🧡

We’re SO grateful to have them with us!🙌🏾

✨Learn more about AIMM’s Advisory Council at: https://jamaabirthvillage.org/black-midwifery-museum/

09/23/2025

✨Documentary Loading!✨

We’re holding on to our dreams of a present and future where Indigenous & Traditional midwifery can co-exist respectfully, fully, with integrity & honor-alongside modern midwifery. We’re keeping our head to the sky and our hearts & hands open as we continue our mission in serving our neighbors & community members across land & waters, with culturally centered and communal midwife led care & education!💜

This past week Jamaa founder Okunsola met with Myrina Renaissance-a 3x Jamaa mom & doula training graduate-and the dynamic team behind the upcoming mini Jamaa documentary titled: “The Midwife’s Path to Justice”, chronicling the story, power and birth justice models of Jamaa Birth Village.🙌🏾

Stay tuned as we continue to chronicle a decade of bountiful care for women, babies and families, dedicated education & service to care providers across our nation, and groundbreaking transformations felt across the globe-as we near our 10th anniversary & celebration of Community Midwife Month, honored in STL County every October since 2021.✨

Swipe for the day 4 progress photo of our mural!

📸 1-9:
🎥:
📸 + 🎨 10:

09/21/2025

✨Day 3 Progress at the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum™✨

Despite the rain rolling in, our mural continues to come to life in the heart of Ferguson, honoring the legacy and presence of midwives who’ve shaped history and new life, since time immemorial.

Featured here in all white, is our first completed midwife on the mural-a legendary midwife of 18th-century Saint-Domingue (Haiti), remembered for her healing wisdom, powerful ceremonies activating the freedom of Black people and resilience during a time of profound struggle and transformation.

Her face markings, eyes and head wrap tells a story, a sacred legendary story, connecting the past to now, while projecting wisdom into the future as we prepare to open the world’s first African Indigenous Midwifery Museum™, at the Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center.

We’re so excited to welcome you and share more about the stories of African diasporic midwife healers, priestesses and pioneers across the globe at our Exhibitions.

✨Save the Date: October 24-26, 2025, our Grand Re-Opening Weekend to learn more about who this famous midwife is!

Mural 🎨 + 📸: spiritscapesss
Original 🎨: artbyhannahmaria

09/20/2025

It’s still !! We’re honored to be a part of the 10% of birth centers in America founded by BIPOC midwives.

We give thanks for our partnership with -supporting and uplifting our efforts to build Missouri’s 1st Black-led Birth Center & Postpartum Retreat Haven-providing holistic care for STL families.💜

Repost • birthfund Birth centers are our safe havens. ✨

They are not just buildings. They are sanctuaries. Spaces where midwives lean in close, where doulas whisper encouragement, and where families feel safe enough to let go.

A birth center is where choice meets dignity. Where science and tradition weave together. Where the rhythm of labor is honored—not rushed. Where families are more than charts or statistics—they are held as whole humans.

Too many have been told they don’t have options. But in a birth center, possibility returns. You can move, eat, use water, dance between contractions, and be surrounded by people who see your strength before you even know it’s there.

This , we honor these sacred spaces—and the midwives, families, and communities who keep them alive.

At , we’re proud to partner with birthcenterequitybce because we believe birth equity isn’t a trend.

To every midwife who stays up through the night, to every family who has crossed a threshold with hope in their eyes, to every community that has fought to sustain these centers—this is our love letter to you.

✨ Share this. Fund this. Protect this. ✨

Link in bio to donate and learn more.

Tag a birth center in the comments!

09/19/2025

The village is bustling as we work collectively to transform Missouri’s first Black led midwifery clinic into The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center-housing the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum (AIMM) and African Indigenous Midwifery Library & Research Institute (AIMM LRI).💜

Follow along with us as our Founder Okunsola M. Amadou-highlights the changes, updates, and process of transforming our national birthing village to a global cultural midwifery center, in the heart of Ferguson, MO.🧡🙌🏾🧡

09/16/2025

It’s Birth Center Week!🧡

We’re overjoyed to celebrate this beautiful week September 14-20th-dedicated to raising awareness on the benefits of community birth centers and why it’s important to uplift funding and investment sources for BIPOC led birth centers.

Swipe to learn more about birth centers from our partners and to learn more about Jamaa’s future Birth Center & Postpartum Retreat Haven.💜

Visit our birth center site: BirthRetreatSTL.com

09/14/2025

✨Today we're celebrating day 2 of
our African Indigenous Midwifery Museum historic mural. We were visited by community members and those passing through Ferguson, to cheer on the work and our mural team Simiya and Scott!✨

Be sure to visit our IG page to learn more about who we are and our work, including our current programs, new initiatives, grand re-opening dates and how to follow along with our journey of midwifery reclamation.💜🙏🏾

09/13/2025

It’s a sunshiny day in Ferguson, MO and we are overjoyed at the progress being made at The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center!☀️

In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we’re excited to share that the sacred work to transform Jamaa into the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum (AIMM) and African Indigenous Library & Research Institute (AIM LRI)-is successfully underway.🧡

In a communal partnership with STL artist Simiya Sudduth, with original art envisioned by Okunsola M. Amadou The Midwifery Folklorist, powerfully illustrated by Artist Hannah Maria Art by Hannah Maria-Jamaa is bringing to life, the legacy, pioneering stories and history of African descended midwives across the diaspora, for a groundbreaking mural at our historic site.

Stay tuned for more!!

✨Remember: Jamaa’s physical location is not currently open due to museum renovations. We’ll celebrate our grand re-opening the weekend of October 24th!

To learn more, visit: www.JamaaBirthVillage.org

📸:

Address

St. Louis, MO

Telephone

+13146437703

Website

https://jamaabirthvillage.org/

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