The Origins of The Arise Black Midwife! Commitment Ceremony
By Taiwo “Tia” Ajao, NBMA Mentee & Fellow 2021 In July 2019, the late Mama Claudia Booker of Birthing Hands Midwifery and Birth Services gathered a mixed group of black birth workers in Washington, DC for a deeply engaging birth assistant training for her midwifery company. That weekend, in what I like to call The Outpouring , she gave to us the Gems of her service as a Homebirth Midwife. Then, she celebrated the completion of her treatment with us: a group of wide-eyed, fiery souls dreaming to be as she. Little did we know that her investment in us would be ours to keep forever, freely and with no charge. Mama Claudia was the only black homebirth midwife who would travel to serve Baltimore, Maryland, where I live; and when she transitioned, there was a true cry in our local birth community as the pandemic threatened us all: “Are there any black homebirth midwives in all of Baltimore?” And the deathening silence resounded: No! No, not one! That ...