Black women using or becoming midwives.
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Reclaim The Tradition
Mitchell knows Birth Sanctuary’s impact goes beyond being Alabama’s first freestanding birth center. The Alabama State Board of Midwifery lists 19 midwives, and Mitchell is one of them. “And then, being a Black woman on top of that makes it pretty special.”
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Mitchell thinks Birth Sanctuary is a chance for Black communities everywhere, not just in Alabama, to take back midwifery and birthing traditions. “It tells the people that this is our medicine and where we come from.”
She has been pleasantly surprised by how many supportive people with similar ideas she has met through this effort. There have also been problems, like state laws that made it hard for midwives to get the licenses they needed, issues with insurance coverage, hateful comments, and the expected difficulty of being a transplant in a community.
Mitchell was born and raised in Boston. In 2020, she and her husband, born and raised in Gainesville, moved there. “People might not understand your passion because you’re not from there. It’s trying to get used to the new surroundings,” she says, “This will be a long fight,” but she’s ready for it.
The birth center in Gainesville, Alabama, is entirely run by volunteers and paid for by others. These efforts are the whole community’s responsibility and shouldn’t just fall on her shoulders or the shoulders of anyone else. Mitchell says that improving the health of mothers is a community issue and that the whole community needs to help, whether through donations, work, or spreading the word.