STL 360 Doula Initiative

January 1, 2021 / 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.

STL 360 DOULA INITIATIVE

2020 was off to a great start. Our clinic was thriving, Doulas were getting the respect they deserved, and our vision had come around full circle. We were overjoyed! As we prepared to enter 2021, we began working on a 3-year plan to expand the access, education and integration of Doula care services into our entire maternal health system.

Merck for Mothers has an initiative called the “Safer Childbirth Cities” which is an initiative to bring funding to innovations in cities with high disparities in childbirth. 

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! We were now tasked with training, growing and supporting 360 Doulas in the St. Louis region and helping to reshape the maternal health infrastructure in our region. 

STL 360 Doula initiative
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Okunsola M. Amadou

Okunsola M. Amadou, a Fulani-American Midwife, is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Jamaa Birth Village. Previously known as "Tru", Okunsola is an initiated Olokun and Egbe Priestess in the Isese religion, where she is currently studying as an Iyalorisha. During Okunsolas rites of passage, she received her traditional face markings, representing her nobility and position of royalty in her lineage.

She founded Jamaa Birth Village in 2015, in her Ferguson, MO living room, starting the St. Louis Black Doula movement and growing the St. Louis Black Doula community from 5 to 200+ in 5-years through her Community Doula Training, the city's first Black written, created and taught community-based doula training. In 2018, Okunsola created the St. Louis Doulas of Color Collective, which now boasts a thriving membership of 40+ Black Doulas and is home to Missouri’s first BIPOC Doula directory.

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