Midwives on wheels? Pregnancy clinic goes mobile to bring services to Miami neighborhood

Prenatal care can help reduce the risk of complications during pregnancy. But not everyone has access to care.

Some expecting parents might be hesitant to visit a bustling hospital or doctor’s office. Maybe they want a natural birth.

That’s where midwives come in. They’re trained workers who provide prenatal, birth and postpartum care.

And starting in January, a new mobile midwifery clinic will be traversing across historically Black neighborhoods in Miami-Dade County to make it easier for mothers-to-be to get prenatal and postpartum care, including testing for sexually transmitted infections.

The clinic, housed inside a converted ambulance, will make stops in neighborhoods including Opa-locka, Overtown, North Miami and Liberty City. These are areas that historically have relied on midwives and are experiencing high rates of health disparities, said Jamarah Amani, the executive director of Southern Birth Justice Network.

While deaths related to pregnancy are rare, about 700 women die each year in the U.S. from pregnancy-related complications, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women due to a variety of factors, including “variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism and implicit bias,” the CDC said.

The Children’s Trust and Humana Healthy Horizons are helping to financially support the organization’s mobile clinic.

Southern Birth Justice Network’s mission is to make midwifery accessible to everyone, “especially Black, Brown, youth, immigrant, indigenous, LGBTQ+, low-income and other marginalized communities” and expand “Birth Justice by using story telling, popular education and community organizing to improve access to midwifery and doula care,” according to its website.

“We believe that people’s basic human rights should be supported by having access to care that they need and deserve. And that care should reflect the communities that they come from,” said Amani, who is a licensed midwife in Florida.

In the mobile clinic, expecting parents will be able to speak with and get care from midwives and doulas, who can provide support, answer questions and provide referrals. The clinic is not a mobile birthing room, although workers can provide referrals for home births and birth centers.

Amani said the clinic’s prenatal and postpartum services will be available to everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

Why do some families want a midwife?

Amani said there are several reasons why some families seek out a midwife instead of a doctor at a hospital maternity ward. Sometimes, it has to do with cost, not wanting to undergo another C section or because of cultural reasons. Often it’s because the family wants “more individualized care that is humanistic and holistic,” Amani said. Midwives can also work with your obstetrician-gynecologist or primary care provider.

“Midwives will take a more systemic approach, looking at you know, the person’s lifestyle, nutrition, their emotional state, and possibly recommending things like supplements or herbs that could have less side effects in let’s say pharmaceutical drugs,” Amani said.

Florida has been a leader in ensuring that midwifery remains legal, Amani said. In Florida, a license is required to practice midwifery. There are also nursing midwives, who are licensed by the Board of Nursing.

“People are really seeking more holistic care, people are seeking more comprehensive care. People want their care providers to listen to them, and to be able to offer guidance and wisdom that is in line with their culture, with their physiology with their priorities for their own health, care that is trauma informed,” Amani said. “And that helps to make families and communities whole. And that’s what we aim to provide.”

The midwife added: “We live in a very toxic system, where the health disparities rates are really high. And I think that by doing this type of healing work, it’s how we begin to patch things. There’s a lot of holes in our system. And this is, a small patch, but the more of this type of work that we’re doing, it’s how we begin to heal and fix the system.”

What to know for a visit

For people interested in visiting the mobile midwifery clinic, the best way to check its schedule is to follow Southern Birth Justice Network on social media or check its website for information on how to schedule an appointment. Their first stop will be January 14 in Liberty City.