Episode Details

 

Laurie McGraw is speaking with Inspiring Woman Shafia Monroe, a champion of change who has spent her entire professional life focused on creating awareness of the disparities with maternal and infant mortality and creating solutions to solve for them.  While she is known today as the queen mother of doulas and midwives, her beginning came from a family of doers.  For example, her father created the first community garden back in the ‘60’s.  She was raised being taught that if you see a problem, act.  This has been her approach ever since seeing the racial disparities of black women and babies dying in the ‘70s.  She became enthralled with being a midwife and hasn’t looked back since.

At age 24, she started her first non-profit to train more black midwives.  And why does it matter?  Because trust, understanding, sharing a common history, and listening to black women are key to health.  When you can create spaces that are safe and allow women to be themselves, this leads to better outcomes.  Today, Shafia is extremely well recognized for her contributions to improving outcomes for black women, children and families based on her work delivering babies and training of thousands of midwives and doulas over decades.

Over the years she has worked on policy change and other mainstream approaches (Shafia’s definition of “mainstream” is codename “white”).  However she finds it far more effective to educate the black community.  She states her work is more than just maternal mortality, it is about empowering the black community to embrace black culture, empower, and help others see their greatness.   E.g. What are your rights?  Here are the statistics – present them to your physician and ask them how they will ensure you do not become one of them….

Shafia is proud of building the next generation of leaders.  As she reflects on the work that she has loved over the decades, she knows the beginning was lonely.  Shafia advises other women to look into their hearts, if you love what you do, to claim their power with gratitude, grab the support of others along the way, go the extra mile, and indeed remarkable things can happen.

  

Shafia Monroe Background

 

Shafia M. Monroe is a renowned midwife, doula trainer, motivational speaker, and cultural competency trainer. Shafia has been “Birthing CHANGE” all her life. In 2016, Madame Noir named Monroe “Queen Mother of a Midwife Movement” for her pioneer midwifery work in Boston, Massachusetts, her hometown. It was there she co-founded the Traditional Childbearing Group (TCBG), a non-profit organization, whose mission was to reduce infant mortality through homebirth services, training community midwives, and providing prenatal education. Monroe served as Boston’s primary African American homebirth midwife from 1978-1991.

In 1991, seven months pregnant with her sixth child, Monroe drove from Boston with he