Posts by Okunsola M. Amadou

In 2025, Jamaa Birth Village celebrates 10-years of service to the St. Louis Community and State of Missouri. In honor of a decade of visionary, groundbreaking and transformative Black Maternal Health care, service, advocacy and education, Jamaa Birth Village announces it’s formal expansion as “The Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center”, set to open officially…

March 2024 marked the successful completion of the STL 360 Doula Initiative by training a total of 363 doulas, receiving St. Louis the prestigious designation as a Safer Childbirth City. In April 2024, Jamaa Birth Village in partnership with the Missouri Community Doula Council hosted Missouri’s 1st Black Maternal Health Summit themed “Collaborative Approaches to…

2023 marked 2-triumphant years of the 3-year Merck for Mothers funded, Safer Childbirth Cities, STL 360 Doula Initiative-led by Jamaa Birth Village and Okunsola M. Amadou.  During this time Jamaa Birth Village had successfully trained over 200-doulas, began working with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, MO Health Net and Healthy Blue to…

In January 2021, Jamaa Birth Village applied and was awarded a 3-year, 1-million dollar grant for the “STL 360 Doula Initiative” in harmony with our initiative the St. Louis Doulas of Color Collective!

Welcome to 2022! We have so much to be thankful for, and this year, we are celebrating, “The Legacy of Black Birth in St. Louis!” 

On Tuesday October 26th, 2022, the Saint Louis County Council awarded Midwife Okunsola, naming every October 26th as Midwife Tru (Okunsola) day and every month of October-Community Midwife Month, due to the honorary and extraordinary work of Jamaa Birth Village in the community.

On June 19th, 2020, Jamaa Birth Village, opened its doors to our new home, fully furnished, completely renovated and ready to serve and provide care to families across the St. Louis region. 

In April of 2019, I successfully completed my Midwifery education at the Midwives College of Utah, with a full ride scholarship for all 4-years! I later sat for and passed the NARM exam making me the 1st Black Certified Professional Midwife in Missouri!

After raising enough funds to purchase our new home, we closed the deal! Renovations began, more donations poured in to pay the contractors, community members came out to help clean, paint and renovate our new 4,000 sq ft facility.

On the 67th day of the campaign, Jamaa Birth Village had did it! We made the biggest accomplishment in Black Maternal Health history in the state of Missouri. We raised $71k in 67 days for Missouri’s first Black Midwifery Clinic and future birth center. We raised more than $60k in 60-days.