9/25/20 Foundry Giving Friday: Metro Midwifery

• Posted on 25 September 2020
• Posted in Foundry Giving Friday
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Every Friday The Foundry Home Goods donates 5% of our total sales to a different community-nominated small-and-mighty cause. This Friday's Foundry Giving Friday recipient? Metro Midwifery!

Metro Midwifery is the only Black-owned home birth practice in the entire state of Minnesota. Why is this a big deal? Well...

In the United States, Black birthing people are more like to die in childbirth, more likely to have pregnancy and birth related complications, more likely to suffer a loss of pregnancy, more likely to lose their baby within the first year of life, and more likely to have a preterm baby. There is no "scientific" reason for this, it is wholly because Black birthing people experience racial health disparities in pregnancy care and childbirth. 

Community midwifery care, especially with a Black provider, has been shown to defy these statistics. And while these these unacceptable, glaring racial inequities in childbirth and pre/post-natal care transcend class (it does not matter if you are LITERALLY Beyoncé, the Medical Industrial Complex continually, systematically, and tragically fails Black birthing people across the spectrum), it is also true that high up-front costs and limited access to Black midwives present significant barriers to accessing birthing care and support. Less than 5% of home birth families are Black. 

Metro Midewifery has an 86% Black and 16% Trans client-base and, upon launching their home birth practice, learned that the disparity for Black families in home birth is NOT due to lack of interest, but due in large part to lack of access. They created an initiative to change that.

The MN Black Home Birth Initiative is a community-sponsored fund that allocates home birth fees to cover Black families via a one-time donation or ongoing monthly contributions. You can contribute and help cover the costs of home birth so that Black families have the accessibility and culturally competent care that they deserve. Learn more @metromidwiferymn (plus PICTURES OF BABIESSSSS!!).

We are pleased and proud to support this beautiful, crucial work this Foundry Giving Friday! If you don't need anything from us, consider supporting The MN Black Home Birth Initiative directly  If you DO find yourself in need of beeswax or bulk supplies, know that your purchase goes to support good change happening on the community level. Black Births Matter.

Thanks to Kadi (brilliant artist and a doula herself) for the stellar nomination!

If YOU have a worthy cause to nominate for our Foundry Giving Friday initiative, pop on over to our Nomination Page and drop us a line. We're all in this together.