2024 Black Birth Matters Summit: Reimagining Birth Through Collective Liberation

At the 2024 Black Birth Matters Summit, black maternal health professionals and advocates came together to discuss how they are shaping the future of black maternal health. This summit spotlit doulas, nurses, poets, artists, and maternal health advocates doing amazing work within the Louisiana communities. An art piece by Glenn Garrison: From Seed To Soil was revealed to demonstrate the importance and value in black births. The Tadah Baby app was spotlighted as a supportive community and a gateway to high-quality, culturally conscious healthcare for mothers and birthing individuals. The Dashboard supervisor, Xavier University’s Public Health Science Department Head, and founder of the Ma Chere Lab (Maternal and Child Health Equity Research & Engagement Lab), Dr. Tyra Gross, gave the Maternal Address to close out the summit. She shed light on the 7 Generations Principle. It demonstrates how a decision will impact the next seven generations. This amplified the importance of advocating for policy change to protect and support black births. Dr. Gross mentioned Positive Deviance and Design thinking as tools to help professionals and students in the field know that the most effective ways of achieving successful and sustainable change are through deviating from the norms of maternal care and policy. Design thinking focuses on making program designs based on need and imagination.