The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center in Ferguson, MO reclaims and uplifts the sacred traditions of African Indigenous midwifery, while boldly addressing the systemic gaps in historical preservation, maternal health access, and culturally grounded education. The historic center operates as a maternal health & cultural heritage non-profit organization serving local, national and international communities.
African Indigenous Midwifery Museum™
The African Indigenous Midwifery Museum™ located within The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center in Ferguson, MO, is the first U.S. museum solely dedicated to preserving, archiving and honoring precolonial and African Indigenous midwifery and birthing practices, rituals, ceremonies and history. Download our museum overview guide.
Opening the weekend of October 24th!
African Indigenous Midwifery Library & Research Institute™
The African Indigenous Midwifery Library & Research Institute is a sacred literary and archival space within The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center, offering the largest collection of Black midwifery-centered texts, oral histories, multimedia, and academic research in the nation.
Opening The Weekend of October 24th.
Okunsola's School of Traditional Midwifery™
Missouri’s first Black-founded midwifery school, training future midwives through holistic, community-based care. We are reclaiming the tradition of community trained midwives, while restoring power and autonomy to families.
Applications open for the first Missouri Student Midwife Cohort on December 21, 2025, for the Autumn 2026 trimester.
ST LOUIS BIRTH CENTER AND POSTPARTUM RETREAT HAVEN™
Launching in 2027, our upcoming 5,000-square-foot facility in Ferguson, Missouri, revolutionizes postpartum care for women, especially for women of color. Featuring four postpartum retreat huts, three water birthing suites and a wellness garden, it addresses critical health disparities and inequities.
10 Years of Creating Black Birth Excellence in St.Louis
OUR VISION: The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center envisions a world where birth is sacred, community-led, and rooted in ancestral wisdom. We preserve and elevate African Indigenous midwifery through care, culture, education, and advocacy. As we honor a decade of transformational and innovative impact, we continue shaping a future where Black & Indigenous families thrive in dignity and power through community based midwifery & doula care.
Transforming Birth since 2015
Over the past decade, the multi-award winning Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center has transformed maternal health care by restoring culturally rooted, community-led birth practices in Missouri and beyond, by closing childbirth, doula & midwife disparity gaps. As the first Black-led midwifery clinic in Missouri, Jamaa is home to the state’s first Black Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) and first Black CPM preceptor, with over 15-County, City, State and Congressional proclamations and resolutions-becoming a national beacon for birth justice and ancestral birthwork.