Jamaa Birth Village

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

Breastfeeding has always been the sacred continuation of pregnancy and birth, and a special milestone in motherhood. It ...
01/06/2026

Breastfeeding has always been the sacred continuation of pregnancy and birth, and a special milestone in motherhood. It is one of the first ways care is given, where nourishment, comfort, and connection happen all at once.

It is how trust is built early, how protection is offered, and how a bond begins to take shape between parents and their child. For generations, this care was held by family and community, not carried alone by mothers.

To learn more about breastfeeding support and postpartum care, visit jamaabirthvillage.org.

Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Dr. Janell Green Smith.Janell was a midwife. A healer. A woman who dedicate...
01/05/2026

Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Dr. Janell Green Smith.

Janell was a midwife. A healer. A woman who dedicated her life to caring for others, and whose presence meant safety, wisdom, and love to so many families. She passed after giving birth to her first child on January 1, a loss that feels impossible to put into words.

This is the kind of loss that reminds us how sacred and fragile life is, and how deeply midwives carry not just knowledge, but responsibility, devotion, and heart.

At Jamaa, we believe in honoring Black community midwives in their fullness.
Their labor.
Their love.
Their humanity.

Janell’s work mattered. Her life mattered.

Her legacy will continue through the people she touched and the care she poured into the world.

We have made a donation to support her family, and we invite our community to do the same if you are able. Supporting her family is one way we can wrap our arms around them and honor the life and work Janell gave so freely.

You can support her family here:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/dr-janell-green-smiths-family

We hold Janell, her child, her family, and all who loved her in deep care. May her name be spoken with honor, and may her legacy live on through the work she helped shape.

As we enter the new year, we are preparing to welcome families back into midwifery care.Jamaa’s midwifery care calendar ...
01/02/2026

As we enter the new year, we are preparing to welcome families back into midwifery care.

Jamaa’s midwifery care calendar opens on January 12, 2026. This marks the return of community centered, culturally grounded care that supports pregnancy, birth, and postpartum for families in the St. Louis area.

If you are interested in receiving care, we invite you to visit our website to learn more and prepare to connect with our team when the calendar opens:
https://jamaabirthvillage.org

We look forward to walking alongside families in this next season.

Mamas, this season asks you to stay close to what nourishes you.Fresh foods from the earth, spring waters, fresh air, no...
01/01/2026

Mamas, this season asks you to stay close to what nourishes you.

Fresh foods from the earth, spring waters, fresh air, nourishing warmth, and abundant rest. These simple things support your body as it carries life and settles into motherhood.

For generations, mothers were cared for in ways that honored this connection to nature and trusted the body’s call and response relationship with the earth.

Learn more about maternal nourishment and holistic care at jamaabirthvillage.org.

If you live in the St. Louis area or are visiting Ferguson, we would love to welcome you to the African Indigenous Midwi...
12/30/2025

If you live in the St. Louis area or are visiting Ferguson, we would love to welcome you to the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum.

Visits to the museum are offered through guided tours so guests have time and space to truly engage with the history, artifacts, and stories held inside The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center.

Guided tours are available Wednesday through Saturday from 10 AM to 4 PM and must be scheduled in advance. Walk in tours are not available.

Admission fees apply, and membership options are available for individuals and families who plan to visit more than once or want to support the ongoing preservation and educational work of the museum.

To view current tour fees, explore membership options, and schedule your visit, please visit
https://jamaabirthvillage.org/black-midwifery-museum/

We look forward to welcoming our St. Louis community and visitors from near and far.

Save the date and plan to join us.Upcoming events and registration opportunities are on the way, and we look forward to ...
12/29/2025

Save the date and plan to join us.

Upcoming events and registration opportunities are on the way, and we look forward to gathering in community for learning, connection, and shared experience.

Registration and details will be released on January 12th. Be sure to check jamaabirthvillage.org for updates and registration information.

Heri za Kwanzaa! Happy Kwanzaa💜Kwanzaa is a week long celebration that honors the African tradition of togetherness, uni...
12/26/2025

Heri za Kwanzaa! Happy Kwanzaa💜

Kwanzaa is a week long celebration that honors the African tradition of togetherness, unity, and pushing forward collectively as a family and community, to celebrate the seeds that we’ve planted-figuratively and actually, and the blossoming harvest that we enjoy for generations to come.

✨Did you know that Jamaa weaves together the Nguzo Saba-the the seven Kwanzaa principles-in all that we do?

Yes, Jamaa means family in Swahili. Since our founding we’ve integrated the language and culture that Kwanzaa originates from. As an organization we practice Kwanzaa, all year long.

🫱🏾‍🫲🏼Umoja (oo-MO-jah) - Unity. Bringing the community together to celebrate culture, heritage and togetherness, no matter our differences in color, ethnicity or geographical location.

✊🏾Kujichagulia (koo-jee-cha-goo-LEE-yah) - Self-Determination. We are determined to bring about the type of maternal and family care & education that we deserve.

🫶🏾Ujima (oo-JEE-mah) - Collective Work & Responsibility. We work together to create, curate and actualize programs, frameworks and change to have abundant, joyful and full lives.

🤲🏾Ujamaa (oo-JAH-mah) - Cooperative Economics. Together we lift up each other’s businesses that center the flourishing of Black and IPOC families, who have historically been pushed to the margins the past 400+ years, to arrive back in our full power.

🙌🏾Nia (nee-YAH) - Purpose. We live out our organizational purpose, vision and mission boldly and fully.

👩🏾‍🎨Kuumba (koo-OOM-bah) - Creativity. We embrace our creative genius in all that we do through art, creative expression, and culture-following in the footsteps of our ancestors while also leading trailblazing innovations & transformations into the future.

🙏🏾Imani (ee-MAH-nee) - Faith. We have faith that we will continue to materialize and manifest the world we wish to see.

🧡We’re sending Kwanzaa blessings to everyone during this 7-day celebration, and wish you a blessed holiday!

Mama, it still takes a village. Especially now.Postpartum is not meant to be carried alone. In African Indigenous midwif...
12/26/2025

Mama, it still takes a village. Especially now.

Postpartum is not meant to be carried alone. In African Indigenous midwifery, family and community surrounded the mother so she could rest, heal, and settle into motherhood with support.

Meals were shared. Hands providing genuine care, tending and support were offered. The village stepped in so the mother did not have to do everything herself.

That wisdom still matters. Especially in a time when so many mothers are expected to recover in isolation and spring back to work.

Learn more about family centered postpartum care at jamaabirthvillage.org.

Happy Holidays from The Historic Jamaa Birth Heritage Center❄️This year, we remain ever so grateful to each of you!Our m...
12/25/2025

Happy Holidays from The Historic Jamaa Birth Heritage Center❄️

This year, we remain ever so grateful to each of you!

Our mamas that we care for deeply, the families that we get to hold in communal embrace, the community members that we’re able to lift up and watch blossom into birth workers, our board, team members and volunteers who make this work bright. And most importantly, our supporters, partners, followers and funders-we’re grateful for you!

Today and everyday, we’re sending you warm seasons greetings and a blessed time with your family and friends. Here’s to a beautiful soul holiday from the Jamaa family.💜🎄✨

The African Indigenous Midwifery Library and Research Institute exists to protect the stories, ways, practices and cultu...
12/24/2025

The African Indigenous Midwifery Library and Research Institute exists to protect the stories, ways, practices and cultural heritage of the midwifery lineage since antiquity.

Within this space live books, archives, oral histories, and research materials that document African Indigenous & Black midwifery across generations and geographies. It is a place for study, reflection, and reconnection to knowledge that has always been apart of human existence.

We invite scholars, birth workers, families, and community members to come in and engage with this living archive.

Learn more about research access and appointments at jamaabirthvillage.org.

Before studios and stages became the homes of dance, women danced and moved their bodies sacredly in their homes and com...
12/23/2025

Before studios and stages became the homes of dance, women danced and moved their bodies sacredly in their homes and communities for fertility, strength, and release.

Hips circling, spines softening, with the force of life strengthening with each motion. With feet grounded to the earth, these movements were not for performance, aesthetics or theater. They were prayers spoken to be answered, supporting circulation, womb health, emotional release, and connection to the body.

What we see today in modern dance and even twerking, carries the distant voices of those ancient practices, calling that energy back into the now. Today’s rhythmic pull of the hips and the grounding of our bodies, is the way of remembering what it has always done to prepare, to heal, and to call life forward.

Movement has always been medicine. The language has changed, but the wisdom lives on.

Learn more about fertility, embodiment, and ancestral care at jamaabirthvillage.org.

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St. Louis, MO

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+13146437703

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