Jamaa Birth Village

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St. Louis, MO
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

11/21/2025

At Jamaa we celebrate and honor Communal Leadership anchored in Ancestral Midwifery practices, lineages & cultural heritage.

For generations across Africa and the diaspora, birthwork has been sustained through matrilineal lines that are not defined by family ties alone, but by shared responsibility, apprenticeship, and the sacred trust of community care.💜

With the retirement of Jamaa’s founder, we maintain & honor these roots, and project them firmly into the future.

Jamaa has created and now fully exist in a sacred collective communal leadership model with the vision of its founder being ceremonially passed to the Vice President of the Board, who will steward Jamaa alongside a council of birthworkers, mothers, archivists, and cultural caretakers. This framework honors:

✨ Decentralized power
✨ Collective decision-making and shared stewardship
✨ Accountability not to institutions, but to community
✨ A lineage of women and birthing people shaped by Jamaa

In a society that often expects organizations to mirror corporate, patriarchal structures, we are choosing memory over mimicry. We are choosing heritage over hierarchy.

This next era is guided by a living question: What becomes possible when leadership is not inherited by blood nor appointed by power, but entrusted and co-led by community?

January 2026: The vision unfolds. Until then, we honor the founder, the board, and every midwife, mother, and baby who is part of this lineage.🌿

May this baton never be held by one pair of hands when it belongs to the many.

May leadership remain a circle, not a ladder.

May every birthworker know that she is part of a lineage, and never alone.

11/20/2025

When one family member becomes a doula, the entire household learns to care differently.

We’ve seen mothers breathe easier knowing their sister, partner, or aunt has the tools to advocate and comfort. We’ve seen fathers find new confidence in supporting birth. We’ve seen families move from uncertainty to unity.

At Jamaa, we believe doula care belongs within the family circle. Because when the people closest to you are equipped to protect your peace, the entire journey changes.

This is how we build stronger families, one birth at a time.

Learn more about family doula training at jamaabirthvillage.org

11/19/2025

At Jamaa, birthing in power begins before conception, before pregnancy, before childbirth, and before becoming a parent.

It begins when a mother is heard, truly heard, about her fears, her dreams, and the genuine types of support that she needs from her family & community to thrive.

It begins when her care team asks not only how are you feeling today but what has your body carried, and who has carried you, and how can we take care of you?

We see the layers that shape her story, both visible and invisible. The meals she prepares with intention. The prayers hoped for between contractions. The unspoken stress she carries from a world that does not always see her.

Birthing in power at Jamaa means receiving care that sees it all, while co-curating a plan of nourishment, power and presence.

Care that honors her body, her spirit, her family, and her history.

When a mother is seen in full, she does not just give birth, she rises.

Learn more at jamaabirthvillage.org💜

11/18/2025

In every culture across the African diaspora, healing after birth begins with foods. In indigenous cultures-wholesome foods are accessible, affordable, and the foundation to well-being.

At Jamaa, we still honor that truth. The simmering of broth, the grinding of grains, the slow preparation of herbs, proteins selected from the earth and locally raised meats-cultivating a present intention for recovery, strength, and new life-for both mom, baby and the future of her lineage.

Our midwifery ancestors knew that the body cannot heal without warmth, nourishment, and intention. Foods like whole grains, legumes, greens, wholesome proteins and fermented dishes were known to restore balance. They replenish what birth requires and sustain what motherhood demands.

For us, food is not a supplement to care, or an afterthought- it is the care, a care foundation which is void from the western maternal health system.

Wholesome foods are healing medicine made with love and nourishment from the earth, existing as the foundation of a thriving motherhood journey.

Learn more about our approach to postpartum healing at jamaabirthvillage.org

11/17/2025

This month we’re highlighting Jamaa Birth Village’s Board of Directors, the cultural stewards of our organization.✨

We begin by honoring Vice President Sandra M. Thornhill, MPA, Womb Warrior, Policy Griot & Social Justice Doula, who currently serves on the Jamaa Birth Village Board of Directors after 5-years of support, volunteering, and leading pivotal movements at Jamaa as a community member.

Sandra is a Being of love, light, and energy on life’s journey to authentically connect with other Beings. As founder of Sacred Organized Spaces, she is present in liberation work to reclaim identity by facilitating the creation of sacred spaces of “Beingness” where authenticity, transparency, and community thrive.

This month she’s elevated Jamaa’s work at two community events: “Unwell by Zip Code Panel” and “Just Narratives for Multiracial Solidarity Conference”. As a panelist and restorative room curator at the conference-Sandy continues to bring real solutions to every space she exists in.

During Jamaa’s 10-year anniversary, Sandy received the baton from the orgs Founder, as she co-stewards the leadership of Jamaa with the Board of Directors in alignment with a communal leadership model.

Visit our IG page to learn more about Sandy, and stay tuned as we unveil our new leadership model January 2026.✨

11/15/2025

You know what we’re down for at Jamaa?💁🏾‍♀️

Investing in long-term sustainable maternal health care in our community that’s not driven by politics and “what’s in”, taking care of mamas, babies & families, and preserving the sacred cultural heritage practices and ways of African Diasporic Traditional Midwives.

The journey into transforming our historic midwifery clinic building into a cultural heritage center-in the heart of Ferguson, MO, continues-as we plan to welcome full tours of the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum & appointments at the Library Research Institute, this January 2026.

✨Stay tuned…

At the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum & Library

🎥:

11/14/2025

True birth justice begins when we see the whole picture.

At Jamaa, we understand that birth is shaped by both the visible and the invisible.

The seen: nutrition, rest, movement, and quality healthcare.

The unseen: safety, lineage trauma, emotional well-being, and the weight of daily life.

Birthing in power means being supported in every layer of that experience. It means having a care team that sees all of you... your body, your history, your home, and your heart.

This is the foundation of Jamaa’s care.

This is how we protect birth.

Learn more at jamaabirthvillage.org

11/13/2025

There was a time when birth was not a private isolated event with more medical providers in the room than family. It was a community honoring and a sacred holding where the ones who cherished, loved and admired the birthing mother the most-was present-fully.

Grandmothers prepared herbs. Aunties sang songs of strength. Sisters prepared foods. Fathers prayed & protected the space. Neighbors waited to welcome anew, holding things that the birthing mother once held. The entire village moved in harmonious power with the mother, each person holding a piece of her story and strength-forward.

At Jamaa, we are bringing that way of being back. Our midwives work within the family structure, restoring birth as a collective experience of love, care, and belonging.

Because when a child is born, a family is renewed. And when a family is renewed and supported, a community is reborn and strengthened.

This is Jamaa! 💜
Learn more at: jamaabirthvillage.org

11/12/2025

At Jamaa Birth Village, care extends beyond the mother giving birth.

We believe that when a mother is supported, her entire family grows stronger. Our model centers the whole family, weaving together nutritional, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness throughout every stage of care.

Through education, family-based doula support, and culturally rooted practices, we help families restore balance and connection in their everyday lives.

Healing is not individual, as it is shared collectively for long-term well-being, and it is sacred.

Learn more at jamaabirthvillage.org

11/11/2025

Beginning January 2026, we welcome you to experience the world’s first cultural center fully dedicated to the preservation and celebration of African Indigenous & Black diasporic Midwifery.

Inside The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center, you’ll find:

• Membership opportunities that help sustain our work and connect you to a global network of birth justice advocates.

• Guided museum tours that honor the stories, artifacts, and traditions of African & Black midwives of the diaspora.

• Research and genealogy appointments through the African Indigenous Midwifery Library & Research Institute.

• Rotating exhibits that celebrate the art, science, and spirituality of birth across the African diaspora.

Special Events:

February 2026-Black Midwifery Global History

March 2026-Midwifery & Genealogy: Who was the midwife in your family?

April 2026-Midwifery Folklore & Storytelling: A gathering of storytellers and folklorists on the pioneering legends and legacies in midwifery

May 2026-African Indigenous Midwifery: What is it exactly?

Each visit supports our mission to preserve Black diasporic midwifery history, advance maternal health, and celebrate birth as cultural heritage.

Plan your visit or become a member at jamaabirthvillage.org.

11/10/2025

Care extends beyond the person giving birth.

We believe that a supported mother means a stronger family. Our model places the whole family at the center, interweaving nutritional, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness throughout all phases of care.

Through education, family-centered doula support, and culturally rooted practices, we support families in restoring balance and connection back into their daily lives.

Healing is not individual; it is shared, and it is sacred.

Learn more at jamaabirthvillage.org

11/07/2025

At Jamaa Birth Village, midwifery is a living embodiment of community care.

Every birth we attend, every family we serve-continues a lineage of care that connects indigenous midwifery and ancestral traditions to modern practice.

For over a decade, Jamaa has offered free and low-cost midwifery services designed to meet families where they are centering culture, dignity, and access.

Our care model honors the art, science and the spirit of birth, connecting community wisdom with clinical skill to protect the health and humanity of every mother and baby.

Midwifery care calendar opens January 2026.
Learn more at jamaabirthvillage.org

Address

St. Louis, MO

Telephone

+13146437703

Website

https://jamaabirthvillage.org/

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