What Wakes Me Up/Moccasin Tracks

What Wakes Me Up 1 Black Midwifery and Women’s Medicine

Tue, Apr 21, 2026

When Jarene Fleming, Breastfeeding Coordinator for the Commonwealth of Virginia, introduced me to Jamarah Amani as someone whose story should be heard, I listened.

Jamarah Amani had founded The National Black Midwives Alliance and Southern Birth Justice, two organizations to that would improve outcomes for those being born and those giving birth, particularly for black women, and to revitalize the role of black midwives in medicine. That vital and trusted role was dismantled when medical colleges and hospitals brought birthing into the confines of a male doctor-centered industry. That is when birth outcomes plummeted, for both black and white people; vaginal births declined, Cesarean sections and episiotomies increased. Drug interventions increased while breast feeding decreased. I could go on telling what I’ve learned, but Jamarah is the one who tells the story first hand. Tune in to the program in WRIR’s archives.

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