African Birth Collective is a non-profit organization that has grown out of the need for greater safety and empowerment of women in their birth experiences and a desire to bridge the gap between traditional and modern midwifery.

	We are international midwives, doulas and birth activists working together in Sénégal, West Africa to exchange ideas and midwifery skills.    We bring donated medical supplies, equipment and funds to our partner clinics and rural maternities in their regions.  We purchase ambulances to provide emergency transport to hospitals. We are devoted to the reintroduction of indigenous medicines and herbs in safe and appropriate ways, and to nutritional education programs based on traditional foods.  We seek to create documented pharmacopeias of traditional herbs and their indications to preserve this wisdom for the generations to come. We are translating educational materials into French, Wolof and Mandinka to provide greater access to knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of birth, its complications, suturing technique, neonatal resuscitation methods, appropriate use of western medications, HIV and STD prevention, nutrition, pre and post natal care. We hold a sacred space of individualized woman-centered care, in  places where midwives are generally taught “protocol” and an increasing standardization of care that often includes unnecessary interventions and medications.  We encourage the understanding that birth is normal, and not a medical pathology to be treated with drugs and surgery except in rare complications.   We believe in honoring and embracing what is most valuable and personal about traditional midwifery and marrying it with the best of what modern technology can offer us