About Shafia Monroe

Shafia Monroe is the keeper of African American birth traditions and postpartum rituals; she has spent over four decades studying the life of the 20th Century African American midwife and has traveled internationally interviewing and shadowing midwives to learn their cultural rituals. In 1991, she founded the International Center for Childbearing (ICTC), the first national not-for-profit to increase midwives and doulas of color, honor the legacy of the 20th Century African American, and empower families to improve birth outcomes. ” For more than four decades she has worked to increase the number of Black midwives by urging midwifery organization, including petitioning the six professional midwifery organization of US MERA in 2014, to diversify its membership through open dialogue, anti-racism policies, and the inclusion of Black midwife organizations.

In 2011, she created Shafia Monroe Consulting/Birthing CHANGE, “to help healthcare professionals and doulas achieve cultural competency, increase clients, and improve perinatal outcomes.  She is the founder of the SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training, a dual certification for the labor and postpartum doula, that is built on the legacy of the 20th century African American midwife.  Her work has been recognized by numerous awards, including four Lifetime Achievement Awards.  Mama Shafia is a wife, a mother of seven, grandmother, and a community mother. She mentors hundreds of people to claim their power as healers, midwives, doulas, and leaders. In her spare time, Monroe enjoys cooking for family and friends, walking, gardening, studying herbal medicine, reading, writing, fishing, and horseback riding.   She promotes healthy eating and has an Instagram TV series called #Black Midwife Cooking, for postpartum foods.