( ENSPIRE Community Spotlight ) Carol’s Daughter, in Partnership With the Mama Glow Foundation, is Continuing Their Commitment to Spread Awareness and Providing Doula Support in an Effort to Combat the Black Maternal Health Crisis
ENSPIRE Contributor: Wesley Tran
In honor of Black Maternal Health Week (April 11-17, 2023), Carol’s Daughter has announced its Birthing While Black campaign, which showcases the real-life stories of Black people navigating the crisis. To kick off the campaign, Black birthing people everywhere are encouraged to share their birthing stories on social media to raise awareness around Black Maternal Health, by using the hashtag: #BirthingWhileBlack and tagging @carolsdaughter. Each post will spark a donation to the Mama Glow Foundation that will help fund doula support for families in need.
Carol’s Daughter, encouraged by Lis Prince’s mother, Carol, started in 1993 to begin creating high-quality products to transform hair and skin. With the help of the Mama Glow Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization committed to advancing reproductive justice through education, advocacy, and the arts, a new campaign is being born to support Black birthing people everywhere and to let people know, they are not in it alone.
Advocates such as Married to Medicine’s Dr. Jackie and Audra Curry and singer Lion Babe have joined in on the cause to shed light on this important initiative by sharing anecdotes from their own experiences and encouraging their followers to do the same. Additional activities under Birthing While Black will be rolled out throughout the year.
According to a recent CDC study that examined maternal deaths during pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy, Black women had the highest maternal mortality rates across racial and ethnic groups during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 and experienced the largest increase when compared to the year before. In New York City, Black women are 8 times more likely than White women to die from a pregnancy-related cause, and nearly 3 times more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity than White women. The health disparities are related to several factors, including access to quality healthcare, underlying chronic diseases, systemic racism, and implicit bias. Love Delivered remains committed to expanding its efforts to empower, support and equip Black birthing people and the greater community to advocate for their health and wellness and give allies the resources to be well-informed in supporting positive birthing experiences.
“While the recent statistics are alarming and sobering, they only serve to further fuel our drive and commitment to this cause,” said Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price. “The work of birthing people should only be the work of giving birth and that experience should be as beautiful as it can be. Our work is to advocate for them to have what they deserve.”
Since its inception, Love Delivered has engaged with over 190,000 people through events, doula grants, education, and webinars. Additional events and #BirthingWhileBlack activities will take place throughout the year to ensure that Black-birthing people and their communities have the resources they need to thrive. To celebrate Black Maternal Health Week, Mama Glow is hosting a webinar on April 12 at 6:30 PM ET, sponsored by Carol’s Daughter addressing birth worker burnout. To register, please visit mamaglow.com.
Families living in NYC, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Washington D.C. who are pregnant or recently postpartum will be selected to receive doula services through the grant program.
Love Delivered programming includes:
- Access to online resources and maternity experts for expectant and new families
- Community building events and forums for expectant and new families and their allies for sharing joyful, inspiring, birthing experiences
- Love Delivered self-care deliveries, including a partnership with the NewYork-Presbyterian Dalio Center for Health Justice that began in 2022. After an initial donation of Carol’s Daughter hair products in Obstetrics and Pediatrics at the NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist campus, the health system is planning to distribute additional 25,000-45,000 kits across the enterprise beginning this Fall.
For more information about Carol’s Daughter, check out their website and Instagram. For more information about the Mama Glow Foundation, be sure to check out their website and Instagram as well!
Related Articles: “Birthing Justice” Airs on PBS During Black Maternal Health Week in April, Fidelis Care Highlights National Minority Health Month
