FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 2, 2026
CONTACT: Emily Witt (she/her), [email protected]
HOUSTON – Avow Texas last week hosted an event honoring the history, lived experience, and present-day impact of Black birth workers and activists while simultaneously addressing the Black maternal health crisis stealing lives in Houston and across the state.
The evening was rooted in joy and resistance, even as we confronted a brutal truth: Houston is the deadliest major U.S. city for Black people to give birth.
In partnership with Scalawag Magazine, If/When/How, Full Circle Family Services, upEND Movement, WeGotUs, and Sankofa Mama, local organizers, birth workers, and advocates from the Houston community gathered to explore what a reproductive justice future — where Black families can thrive in safety and autonomy — looks like in Houston and beyond.
“There is a history of white supremacy that has created branches of oppression that you can’t track, but are actually moving in our bodies, and they change our health outcomes. So, yes, we need a doula by our side. We need a lactation consultant within the first 12 hours of our birth,” said raven e. Freeborn (they/them), Doula and Executive Director at Avow Texas. “Black people did not create this problem. Who gets to define the problem and who gets to create the solution? My hope is that it’s always us.”
“I make it my business to build relationships and build community. My duty is to build a community-centered collaborative care ecosystem and to know who is for us,” said Sierra McClain (she/her), Doula and Founder of WeGotUs and Sankofa Mama Birth Services. “It’s a matter of life or death.”
“Black women deserve access to the care that they need to have healthy births. Black women also deserve to be able to raise those children in healthy environments,” said Josie Pickens (she/her), Director at upEND Movement. “The reproductive justice movement has always been life-affirming — whether we’re talking about affirming someone’s decision to access abortion or Black women being able to give birth and come out of the birthing process alive.”
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