07/01/2026
“Mothers are Screaming For Help!”
Listening to Mothers (IV) documents the birth and postpartum experiences of mothers within the U.S. health‑care system. While the findings are deeply disappointing, sadly they are not surprising. The report reveals that pregnant and postpartum mothers continue to face traumatic, unsafe, and bias care at the hands of their health‑care providers and the health care system.
One of the most striking findings is the clear and consistent evidence that midwifery care leads to better outcomes—yet it remains significantly underutilized. At SMC Doula Training, we teach midwifery as the first line of defense in improving the perinatal outcomes, and where women feel seen and heard. We encourage every birth worker to identify which hospitals have midwifery departments and to learn which organizations and practices offer home‑birth services. Adding this information to your resource list ensures that pregnant and postpartum families have easier access to midwifery care, a critical step toward improving their health‑care options.
The report also highlights that most mothers felt unprepared for the postpartum period. Not knowing what to expect after birth or how to care for a newborn can contribute to higher rates of depression. As a community, we can be proactive by offering resources such as childbirth education classes, newborn classses, breastfeeding support, and fathers groups. We can help family create questions for their postpartum visits, and we can refer them to trusted organizations, apps, websites, and vetted reading lists. A new postpartum resource is “Mothering the Mother: African American Postpartum Traditions, Recipes, and Healing,” (https://shafiamonroe.com/) that prepares parents and community for a positive postpartum experience; where mothers thrive and not just survive.
The report emphasizes that postpartum mothers need support well beyond the traditional six‑week window. We must continue advocating for policies that include as many postpartum home visits as a mother feels that she needs, and we must urge health‑care professionals to integrate comprehensive postpartum care into their OB/GYN packages. As a community, we must take ownership for the new mothers in our families and community. Postpartum care — is service work, and one does not need to be a birth worker to mother a mother.
Listening to Mothers (IV) is an essential and timely resource that should be read by everyone who wants to improve maternity care in the US. Please widely share this report, https://lnkd.in/dP3JRisp (https://lnkd.in/draxMenx)
Thank you Carol Sakala for your work.
Shafia Monroe, MPH, DEM, CDT
President
Shafia Monroe Consulting
3519 NE 15th Ave, #193
Portland, OR 97212
O:503-281-1688
[email protected]
www.shafiamonroe.com
Author of “Mothering the Mother:
African American Postpartum Traditions, Recipes and Healing.”
