12/27/2025
Habari gani!
Kujichagulia!
(Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”
Sisters what are we waiting for?
Today we recognize and claim the right of Black people, families and the community as a whole to restore the health and wellbeing of our communities for ourselves, by ourselves.
Ubuntu Black Family Wellness is a Black femme led healthcare practice in Northeadt Wilmington where Black women can come with their families to receive their health care from Black healthcare professionals with decades of expertise in culturally rooted, high quality reproductive healthcare services. We function free from any financial or institutional pressures from without that would tie their funding to any agenda other than centering the needs and desires of the Black person seeking out care.
We are informed by the framework Reproductive Justice which is also rooted in Kujichagulia (Self-Determination).
Reproductive Justice (RJ) means the human right to control our sexuality, our gender, our work, and our reproduction. That right can only be achieved when all women and girls have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about our bodies, our families, and our communities in all areas of our lives.
Reproductive Justice is the belief that all women including Black women have:
the right to have children;
the right to not have children and;
the right to nurture the children we have in a safe and healthy environment.
Today in America and even in Delaware we recognize that Black mamas are 3 more times likely to die during the year in and around pregnancy. Our babies in Wilmington, Delaware are 7 times more likely to die than their white counterparts.
And the cause is not anything built within us. It is not caused by any genetic risk factors dictated by our ancestry, but by racism.
Wage inequity means that as Black women, we are paid only 80 cents of what our white female counterparts earn, 63 cents of a white man, to do the same jobs.
When we become pregnant or seek care to avoid becoming pregnant because of that wage discrimination we are more likely to have our healthcare funded by Medicaid and have less access to care forcing us and our children into systems of care in the medical industrial complex where we are not likely to see Black OBGYNs but by white medical trainees who see us as teaching material and are TAUGHT dangerous racially driven stereotyping, who often don’t listen to us, believe we don’t feel pain, exaggerate about our symptoms to avoid work, and simply not see and hear us as fully human and deserving the same level of care as they partners, mothers, daughters.
Our babies are more likely to be born sooner due to the combination of life stress, lack of access to holistic care and medical racism. Did you know even with one of the premiere pediatric research hospitals in the nation, Delaware gets a grade of D?
https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/reports/delaware/report-card
That in the past 10 years despite MILLIONS of federal taxpayers dollar being given to the state and funneled into programs led by the very people and institutions that have been killing us and watching our babies die, the preterm birth rate, the biggest risk factor for infant mortality, is going up and not down.
The solution to improving pregnancy and birth outcomes in Black birthgivers and babies is not the white men in white coats who dole out the care they believe we deserve, but to take it back for ourselves.
Ubuntu Black Family Wellness was found to be a space where Blacl mamas can come to get their care from the ancestral caregivers and keepers of healthcare knowledge; Black community midwives, with Black doulas, nurses, lactation specialists, community health workers, with autonomy. Where you can claim your space and know that you are the center of every decision.
Our Midwifery Director and founder Mama Michelle Drew, is a dedicated, doctorally prepared, double Board certified midwife, nurse practitioner and nationally recognized, award winning, provider, activist artist and truth teller who at her own cost, regularly stand up to and speaks truth to power, bringing the true model of reproductive justice to her care. With our partners and board members JanayAlise Muhammad, Teresa Muhammad, they began the FIRST community doula program that offered fully funded culturally congruent doulas with Black doulas trained and mentored by Black doulas from Black and Indigenous Birthworkers of Delaware
Every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday you can walk through the doors of Ubuntu, with or without an appointment and know that whether you are looking for pregnancy care to prepare for a home birth, want or need to give birth in a hospital or don’t want to be pregnant at all, we have EVERYTHING you need to get the care you want including access to safe legal first trimester abortion services and Black mamas will never pay out of pocket for their care.
Every day of the week we use our voices to advocate for YOU. And we lift up our sister organizations who truly embrace the principle of Reproductive Justice which is intrinsically rooted in Kujichagulia: unapologetically stating the right of Black peoples to determine when, if, under what circumstances we will, become pregnant, continue a pregnancy, to give birth in spaces where we feel safe centered and loved, not a victim of medical racism and obstetric violence by provider who see us as only Black dories to be practiced upon. And to raise our children we do safe in safe, sustainable and yes, unapologetically BLACK communities. We acknowledge SisterSong an organization we are proud to be a member for being the nexus of this movement. We sit at the feet of our Sisters in the Black Mamas Matter Alliance who literally wrote the toolkit that will lead to our liberation in birthing spaces. We give thanks and praise for the National Black Midwives Alliance who has curated a space where Black midwives can be protected, nourished and our workforce can reclaim midwifery and a sacred birthright and the solution to health disparities. ROOTTwhich has been a profound inspiration to our work and a great supporter, contributing to growth of our own nutrition program by being the largest donor to our new food classroom, kitchen and second consultation room. Irth who is changing healthcare for Black birthgivers by giving us a voice and a place to speak the truth of the bad and good care we receive while pregnant and birthing so curate information on where we can go to be safe.
There are too many to name but who have been true sisters for years and have lifted us up, welcomed us in and who what what we do.
We wish for us all in 2024 to take the initiative to seek to self determine our reproductive futures.
Healthcare by us for us.
