Midwifery Then and Now: A Living Legacy Shaping the Future of Birth
Black History Month invites us to reflect on the past while celebrating what is emerging now the continued growth and transformation of midwifery care that is improving birth experiences for families today.
Midwifery has never disappeared. In Black communities, it endured across generations despite exclusion from formal medical systems. Enslaved and free Black midwives once attended the majority of births in the United States, serving not only as birth attendants but as healers, educators, and trusted community leaders. Their knowledge sustained families long before modern maternity care and that legacy remains active today.
Through policy change, community leadership, and evolving care models, midwifery continues to center dignity, continuity, and informed choice.
A More Recent History Worth Knowing
Across the United States, midwifery has seen measurable progress in recent years.
Midwife-attended births continue to rise nationwide, reflecting growing interest in relationship-based maternity care. Community birth centers are gaining national recognition for quality outcomes and accountability through benchmarking and peer-review programs. Hospital-based midwifery programs are also expanding, giving families greater access to midwife-led care with medical collaboration when needed.
Advocacy wins, including states reversing long-standing restrictions on freestanding birth centers, demonstrate how policy shifts can increase access to community-based care.
Together, these changes signal growing recognition of midwifery as an essential component of maternal health.
What the Data Is Beginning to Show
As midwifery care expands, outcomes increasingly reflect what families value most.
Continuity of care with the same provider or team throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum is associated with stronger engagement and satisfaction. Integrated care models that include midwives have shown improved outcomes, including lower intervention rates and increased breastfeeding initiation. Relationship-centered care, grounded in listening and shared decision-making, remains a defining strength of midwifery practice.
These findings affirm what families have long known: when care is personal, consistent, and respectful, outcomes improve.
Lineage, Representation, and Living Legacy
Progress in midwifery is inseparable from lineage.
Black midwives have always been part of this work; from ancestral figures like Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy, whose contributions shaped obstetric knowledge, to modern leaders who reclaimed and redefined midwifery in recent decades.
Today, recognized Black midwives such as Afua Hassan and Stephanie Palacio have influenced education, advocacy, and community-based care. Here in Houston, midwifery lives through the work of Frances Jones-Coleman MPH, LM, CPM, Catrice Harris, LM, CPM, DeShaun Taylor, LM, CPM, KaTina Poe CNM, APRN, MSN, Faren Foley LM,CPM, and JaLisa Taylor Enyi CPM, whose care supports families across birth settings and seasons of life.
They are joined and supported by future midwives BriaAnna Ward BSN, RN, CD, Widna Ferguson, Stacy Besserud, and Jocelyn Durden who are currently training to carry this work forward.
Midwifery is not a chapter that has closed. It is a living practice evolving, expanding, and leading.
Midwifery lives because each generation carries it forward.
Why This Matters to the Future of Birth
The growing visibility of midwifery reflects a deeper shift in maternity care.
Families are seeking care that honors their voices. Systems are beginning to value continuity, prevention, and personalized support. Midwives and advocates are shaping policies that reflect what families truly need.
This Black History Month, we honor the midwives who came before, those practicing today, and those preparing to serve the next generation. Their work continues to transform birth, ensuring that care rooted in community, respect, and knowledge remains essential.
Honoring Houston Midwives: Carrying the Work Forward
Midwifery is not only history, it is happening here and now.
In Houston, midwives continue to serve families with skill, compassion, and commitment to relationship-centered care. We honor the midwives whose work supports families across pregnancy, birth, and postpartum and the future midwives who are currently learning, training, and preparing to serve the next generation of families.
Together, they represent continuity, care, and possibility. Their work reflects a living legacy one that continues to shape safer, more supportive birth experiences for families in our community.
