2015: Birthing of a Village

December 31, 2015 / Okunsola M. Amadou

Jamaa Birth Village means family in the African language of Swahili. Come and go with me, on the humble beginnings and birthing of a village.

birth of jamaa

A Full Ride to Midwifery School

becoming a midwife

When I returned to the states, I moved back to the Ferguson area with my boys, and settled in, not letting that vision leave me. I continued teaching and sharing holistic women’s wellness and birth work education in the St. Louis area while providing Doula care.

I called around to area midwives so that I could complete the apprenticeship model to become a home birth midwife, but I was turned down every call. In 2015, I was accepted to the Midwives College of Utah on a full scholarship and that’s when I knew for certain that I would be that first Black CPM that St. Louis needed. 

Community Organizing

I began to organize the community around Black birth work and hosted the Natural Childbirth Education Circles at the Ferguson Public Library with 2-Doula mentees at the time who supported my vision and wanted to see the birth world change for Black women as well.

We outgrew the library space and moved to my living room in my Ferguson home. It was there in October 2015, that I officially founded what is today known as Jamaa Birth Village, and on October 26th, 2015, the state of Missouri formally recognized Jamaa Birth Village (formerly Community Birth & Wellness Center)

After all of the grassroots organizing, finally, a local Midwife buckled and made space to take me on as the first Black CPM student in St. Louis. I was led to open a clinic in my home, after feeling depleted and exhausted from driving out to the suburbs every day, 40-minutes from my home in a low-income neighborhood, driving past people who needed Midwifery care in our own community, just to be around an all white birth center staff with no cultural congruence training and providing care for white women who didn’t even want my hands taking their blood pressure.

I decided to stop going to the suburbs and to either leave my clinical placement or do my clinicals in my own living room, with women from my own community, being supervised by my precepto. Just as you may be thinking, I did the latter, and planned to expand Jamaa Birth Village from an educational Doula organization to a home Midwifery clinic starting in 2016. 

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Okunsola M. Amadou

Okunsola M. Amadou, a Fulani-American Midwife, is the Founder and President of Jamaa Birth Village.

Brittany L. Conteh, professionally known as Priestess Okunsola M. Amadou, Folk Midwife™ and Birth Priestess™, is a pioneering midwife, educator, and preservationist dedicated to redefining the legacy of African Indigenous Midwifery and ensuring its rightful place in the cultural and historical record.

After leading the Jamaa Birth Village organization and midwifery clinic for over a decade and practicing as a Certified Professional Midwife, Okunsola is now transitioning from clinical practice to full-time cultural preservation, focusing on the documentation, protection, and advancement of her patent pending midwife designation paths of Folk Midwifery™ and Birth Priestess™ traditions-globally.

As the Founder & President of Jamaa Birth Village, Okunsola led groundbreaking efforts to transform Black Maternal Health in Missouri and beyond. Her achievements include:

Opening Missouri’s first Black-led midwifery clinic on Juneteenth 2020, after training with traditional midwives and fetish priestesses in Ghana (2013).

Becoming the First Black Certified Professional Midwife & First Black Registered CPM Preceptor in Missouri.

Certifying over 460 Black doulas, significantly closing the Black doula disparity gap in St. Louis and the State of Missouri.

Earning 24 awards for her contributions to Black Maternal Health.

Consulting hospitals, policymakers, and international organizations on equitable maternal care policies.

Receiving ten state/local proclamations, seven resolutions-including a Congressional Resolution for her work in birth justice.

As a Museum Studies scholar, Okunsola graduated from the University of Iowa Museum Studies Program May 2025, after completing an internship at the Missouri Historical Society where she launched a Missouri Midwife archive and pop-up exhibit.

Her leadership has not only expanded access to midwifery and doula services, but also challenged systemic inequities in maternal care, ensuring culturally centered and community-driven solutions.

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