Date and Time
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 | 2 PM ET / 11 AM PT | VIRTUAL
Speaker
Jamarah Amani
Midwife, Executive Director, Southern Birth Justice Network
Read Bio
Jamarah Amani, LM is a community midwife who believes in the transformative and healing power of birth and that every baby has a human right to human milk. Her mission is to do her part to build a movement for Birth Justice locally, nationally and globally. Jamarah is the architect of the Birth Justice framework, the Black Midwives Model of Care and the Birth Justice Bill of Rights. Jamarah identifies as Black, Femme and Queer.
A community organizer from the age of sixteen, Jamarah has worked with several organizations across the United States, the Caribbean and in Africa on various public health issues, including HIV prevention, infant mortality risk reduction, access to emergency contraception and access to midwifery care. As a birth worker and activist, Jamarah has been tackling issues of racial justice, including the epidemics of Black maternal and infant morbidity/mortality for over fifteen years. She is currently the Executive Director of Southern Birth Justice Network, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization working to expand the Birth Justice movement and to make midwifery and doula care accessible to marginalized communities. She is also the co-founder of National Black Midwives Alliance, the only national professional association in the U.S. specifically for midwives of African descent, and a founding member of the Queer and Transgender Midwives Association.
Jamarah is the recipient of the 2019 Trailblazer Award from the City of Miami, which proclaimed a day in her honor- Jamarah Amani Day, celebrated annually on March 14. She has been featured in a variety of media outlets including PBS, NPR, NBC and publications such as Vox, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Washington Post, among others. She has written for news outlets including the Miami Times and Miami Herald. Jamarah recently received the inaugural Umm Salaamah Sondra Abdullah- Zaimah Birthworker Award from Black Mamas Matter Alliance. In addition to parenting four children and watching the sunrise whenever possible, Jamarah offers midwifery care to families in South Florida and teaches workshops on Birth Justice to organizations across the United States.
Event Description
Black birthing people have a higher primary c‐section rate than any other group. In the United States, Black birthing people are 3-4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white birthing people. In many counties across the US, Black babies are more than twice as likely to die in the first year of life as white babies. According to Amnesty USA and the United Nations CERD, these are human rights violations.
How do interpersonal, institutional and internalized racism impact life and death in our communities? How do intersecting oppressions affect an individual’s ability to receive quality reproductive health care? Given this context, what is the responsibility of allies and advocates?
This workshop will explore the root causes of the rising maternal and infant mortality rates in the US through the lens of the Birth Justice framework.
Participants will be able to identify how white supremacy and violence are embedded in obstetrics and gynecology through examining the intersections of pregnancy, birth and parenting with social, racial and economic justice. Participants will be able to articulate how tools such as the Birth Justice Bill of Rights and the Black Midwives Model of Care can help build a movement for Birth Justice. Participants will strategize about how to utilize a radical approach to organizing for autonomy and liberation for all birthing people.