African American Midwives

The history of African Americans in this country remains a topic only worthy to be highlighted one month out of the year. Yeah, that irks me. And even I don't know as much as I should and wish African American History had been a regular unit throughout the entire school year when I was a kid.

Mothering Magazine however breaks that mold time and time again by highlighting people and practices from all cultures. They even featured The Legacy of Black Midwives in its September/October 2007 issue (#144) . Kudos to you Mothering! Please keep it up. The legacy of African Americans within the Natural Parenting community deserves a great deal more attention. Fortunately, one group headed by Shafia Monroe, the International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC) in Portland, Oregon is paying attention to this isolated population and has become "an information clearinghouse for black women around the country who want to find support and kindred spirits in their areas."

ICTC is one of the few organizations in the country dedicated to educating and training black midwives. Any doubt about the need for such training is quickly dissipated by a glance at the statistics: Overall, the US has one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the developed world, and the rate for African Americans is almost twice that: 13.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to a National Vital Statistics Report.² The reasons for this are intrinsic to the system we live in, says Monroe, who adds that training and supporting midwives is part of the answer.

"We have a legacy, and we should have ownership of this," Monroe says of black midwives. "We need to build up the infrastructure in this society and deal directly with the issues that affect us, including higher levels of poverty, lack of access to quality health care, and higher levels of stress." According to Monroe, the women who enter the ICTC want to be empowered to have the best birth experiences possible, but are subject to health care and societal systems that discriminate against them.

Calling it a "family movement" rather than a feminist movement, Monroe's organization stands to advocate for all families, regardless of race or gender. The ICTC focuses on "educating black women about their health, reducing infant mortality, and showing women how to raise healthy children with tenderness and attention." Monroe reminds us of the important position midwives of all cultures have played throughout history and is hopeful they can regain this status.

You can read The Legacy of Black Midwives by Zelie Pollon in its entirety at Mothering.com. To get more great articles like this regularly, visit Punkin Pockets' Mothering Magazine Subscription page where you can order a print or digital subscription.

For more on Shafia Monroe and the history of midwives, visit the ICTC website.

Buried under a sea of Christmas catalogs?

Found this helpful little article over at Mothering Magazine.

Stop the Catalogues, Save the Planet

By now, we all know that our environment's got problems. Uncontrolled logging and rainforest decimation have brought us to the point where we have lost roughly half of our planet's trees. The catalogue industry alone is responsible for the destruction of more than eight million tons of trees each year.

Now, thanks to a project sponsored by the Ecology Center and endorsed by both the National Wildlife Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, there is a way we can control the flood of unwanted catalogues in our mailboxes—Catalog Choice...

You can read more about how to stop your flood of catalogs by visiting this link at Mothering.com for the rest of the story.

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