Michelle Drew, DNP, MPH, Nurse Midwife

11/07/2025

10/17/2025

Breaking news: In network for Tricare! Looking for a home birth with an experienced licensed midwife? Look no further.

09/07/2025

“The US midwifery workforce isn’t just small, but very homogenous. Over 90% of the 12,000 midwives in the US today are white, and less than 700 are Black, says Dr. Michelle Drew, a midwife and the director of Ubuntu, a collective of healthcare and community workers serving Black families in Delaware.”

4 years later it’s no better. In fact for each new nurse midwifery program coming online the demographics of students is only getting whiter. And there is still not a SINGLE nurse midwifery program at a Black or Hispanic serving university in the United States.

Obstetric violence is perpetuated in systems where overwhelmingly white surgeons and midwives operate in oppressive systems of institutional and interpersonal racism to maintain the status quo that was established by J. Marion Sims, strengthened by Joseph DeLee and passed down to generation after generation of almost exclusively white OBGYNs.

Funding midwifery at HBCUs would promote better maternal health and address the lack of diversity in the field.

09/05/2025

Beloveds. If your midwife can sleep with your baby when she dozes off while you shower, you can too. There are many safe ways to co-sleep. Safe co-sleeping starts with being sure that you are not consuming any substances including over the counter antihistamines or prescription medications with sedation or excessive sleepiness. Yes. This means no alcohol or w**d. It means talking with a provider you trust about the best antidepressants and treating anxiety.

Knowledge is power and a medical industrial complex rooted in the white male as the patriarch handing down orders from on high, rather than community based care which centers the individual or family as the decision maker and the provider as an advisor, doesn’t want you to have the power to make informed decisions.

09/03/2025

I’m just heartbroken and fascinated at the same time. This is the America you want to make great? The America that won’t make sure pregnant women and children can thrive.

09/03/2025

Home births are associated with higher maternal autonomy, respect, and satisfaction compared to hospital settings. Maternity care policies should integrate respectful and autonomy-supportive practices to enhance maternal experiences in all birth environments.

Like mothers in neighboring Maryland and New Jersey, all Delaware mothers deserve access to safe home births from the professional midwife of their choice. But even 8 years after the passage of statutes to legalize and license Certified Professional Midwives, home birth is kept out of the reach of the majority of birthing mothers and families. Why? Well because Delaware Medicaid, the medicaid MCO’s AmeriHealth Caritas Delaware, Highmark Health Options
Delaware First Health
Aetna
Highmark Blue Cross Blue SHLD (the insurance company that covers all state employees and Christiana Health the state of Delaware the states two largest employers) refuse to cover home birth.

Which means only those wealthy enough to pay anywhere from $5,000-10,000 out of pocket woth no guarantee to reimbursement can give birth in the safety of their homes.


https://www.cureus.com/articles/394123-exploring-maternal-autonomy-respect-and-satisfaction-during-childbirth-insights-from-home-birth-experiencesdsn nse n

Background Maternal autonomy, respect, and satisfaction during childbirth are crucial aspects of maternity care. While hospital births are standard in many healthcare systems, home births are increasingly preferred by women seeking more personalized and autonomous experiences. This study evaluates m...

08/16/2025

I’m saying it right now. They killed that baby. Poor angel

The search continues for a 7-month-old boy who was reportedly kidnapped in Yucaipa.

08/16/2025

Your annual reminder that the United States is the only country that doesn’t provide maternity care and paid maternity leave to every citizen and legal resident for free.

The only country that doesn’t have midwifery care as the standard and

The only country that created a whole system of care that pays hospitals that trains medical trainees (residents physicians) $250,000 per year trainee then funnels poor mothers that are disproportionately Black and immigrants receiving state funded healthcare into those hospitals where they’re prenatal care and births are provided by a workforce that are novices and less than 3% African American doctors because residency program directors are permitted to use personal and subjective criteria like goodness of fit (They not like us) as placement criteria while refusing to consider cultural diversity and ethnic similarities as the community they will serve as a factor.

Raise your hand if you wanted to have a hpme birth attended by a licensed professional midwife but the reason you didn’t is because your insurance doesn’t cover homebirth and you don’t have $5000-7500 in savings?

Money or lack thereof shouldn’t be the deciding factor in where or with whom you give birth.

And our state and federal governments are too deeply involved with the medical and hospital lobbying agencies to choose what’s best for women and babies.

Universal Healthcare for all.
Midwifery care as the standard in prenatal care at birth

Home birth as an option for every healthy mother.

Home visits before, during and after birth by a licensed nurse or midwife

And paid maternity leave for every mother whether she was at her job for 1 year or 1 day from the start of hire.

We pay taxes. But to our federal and state legislators work for us?