Midwives on wheels? Pregnancy clinic goes mobile to bring services to Miami neighborhood
Prenatal care can help reduce pregnancy complications. To improve access to care, Southern Birth Justice Network is operating a mobile midwifery clinic in Miami-Dade.
Prenatal care can help reduce the risk of complications during pregnancy. But not everyone has access to care.
Some expecting parents might be hesitant to visit a bustling hospital or doctor’s office. Maybe they want a natural birth.
That’s where midwives come in. They’re trained workers who provide prenatal, birth and postpartum care.
And starting in January, a new mobile midwifery clinic will be traversing across historically Black neighborhoods in MiamiDade County to make it easier for mothers-to-be to get prenatal and postpartum care, including testing for sexually transmitted infections.
The clinic, housed inside a converted ambulance, will make stops in neighborhoods including Opa-locka, Overtown, North Miami and Liberty City. These are areas that historically have relied on midwives and are experiencing high rates of health disparities, said Jamarah
Amani, the executive director of Southern Birth Justice Network.
While deaths related to pregnancy are rare, about 700 women die each year in the U.S. from pregnancy-related complications, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women due to a variety of factors, including “variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism and implicit bias,” the CDC said.
The Children’s Trust and Humana Healthy Horizons are helping to financially support the organization’s mobile clinic.
Southern Birth Justice Network’s mission is to make midwifery accessible to everyone, “especially Black, Brown, youth, immigrant, indigenous, LGBTQ+, low-income and other marginalized communities” and expand “Birth Justice by using story telling, popular education and community organizing to improve access to midwifery and doula care,” according to its website.
“We believe that people’s basic human rights should be supported by having access to care that they need and deserve. And that care should reflect the communities that they come from,” said Amani, who is a licensed midwife in Florida.
In the mobile clinic, expecting parents will be able to speak with and get care from midwives and doulas, who can provide support, answer questions and provide referrals. The clinic is not a mobile birthing room, although workers can provide referrals for home births and birth centers.
Amani said the clinic’s prenatal and postpartum services will be available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.
WHY DO SOME FAMILIES WANT A MIDWIFE?
Amani said there are several reasons why some families seek out a midwife instead of a doctor at a hospital maternity ward. Sometimes, it has to do with cost, not wanting to undergo another C section or because of cultural reasons. Often it’s because the family wants “more individualized care that is humanistic and holistic,” Amani said. Midwives can also work