Chinyere Oparah
Chinyere Oparah is a leader, educator, and activist scholar wih roots in Nigeria and U.K., who lives in Oakland, CA.
She is founder of the Center for Liberated Leadership, and founder and chief executive coach at Black Excellence Executive Coaching. Chinyere has served in leaderlship roles in higher education and the nonprofit sector for three decades, most recently as Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of San Francisco (USF). She is Professor at USF and Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies from Mills College. Chinyere is author and editor of numerous books including Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crise, Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth (with Alicia D. Bonaparte) and Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption.
Why I am involved:
I started the journey of pregnancy knowing very little about the medical industrial complex and its impact on black women’s birth experiences. During my pregnancy, I found myself boxed into a category of “older” woman (in my early 40s), and treated as if my pregnancy was a risk, and I was somehow irresponsible for having fertility treatment and getting pregnant late in life. As a single-mom-to-be and queer woman, I also experienced a great deal of homophobia and heterosexist assumptions about what my family looked like, and who would be at the birth. I found it heartbreaking that so few black women have the economic or emotional resources to access the kind of support that allowed me to resist the medical industry and be fully present for the sacred experience of birth. As an activist and researcher, I decided that working within a collective to document our birth stories of heartbreak and courage was a first step toward reclaiming our birth experiences, and ending the medical violence of unnecessary C-Sections and other interventions that lead to injury and even deaths of black women and babies. I am thrilled to be working with a collective of inspiring, courageous and committed women toward this goal.
Linda Jones
Linda Jones is a Birth and Postpartum Doula
Linda Jones is a Birth and Postpartum Doula and mother of two, grandmother of four and great-grandmother of four, who lives in Oakland, CA. She founded and owned Waddle and Swaddle Baby Boutique and Resource Center in Berkeley, CA and has been a part of the natural birth advocacy community in the Bay Area for over three decades. She is one of the co-founders of Black Women Birthing Justice and was one of the founders of a Doula collective (Roots of Labor Birth Collective) Linda is a Community Advisory Board member for UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative and is Executive Director and on the Executive Committee for Mothers for Mothers Postpartum Justice Project.
Why I am involved:
After a career in corporate America, a three-year sailing adventure, and the birth of my second daughter, I found the career and passion that I had been looking for all my life as a Doula. A Doula is a woman that informs, guides and supports women and new families through the birth experience and the first few days, weeks or months after the birth. I have been doing this work for over three decades in the East Bay Area.
The reason I am so excited about working with Black Women Birthing Justice is because I am very concerned with the high incidence of traumatic births and maternal mortality among all women and specifically Black women. The high percentage of early inductions and C-sections have made birth a medical action rather than the natural, empowering experience in can be for women. I want to be a part of a collective that will begin to impact these issues and empower women to take back their birth choices.
Sayida Peprah
Sayida Peprah, has a Doctorate of Psychology in Clinical Psychology, with a Multicultural Clinical-Community Emphasis, from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University.
Dr. Peprah completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and Religion at Spelman College. Dr. Peprah’s background, both academically and in the field, afford her unique competence in instructing courses, counseling and consulting, from a multicultural perspective. Dr. Peprah has a strong belief and background in cultural competence and, in effort to expand this, has participated in numerous international, cultural immersion studies. Previously, she has traveled to Ghana, Mexico, Egypt and India, studying mental health approaches, indigenous culture and local spiritual traditions. Dr. Peprah is also a Birth Doula, who has worked with women of diverse backgrounds, and is a Board Member and Instructor with The Association for Wholistic Maternal and Newborn Health, teaching cultural awareness, cross-cultural communication and perinatal mood disorder content for the organization’s trainings. Sayida is a Psychological Consultant for the organization's clients both individual and corporate
Talita Oseguera
Talita Oseguera, is a midwife, full-spectrum doula, breastfeeding peer counselor, placenta encapsulator, advocate for reproductive justice, and mother.
She recently completed nurse midwifery training at the University of California, San Francisco. As a graduate student, she worked as a field nurse with SOLARS, one of the first, large-scale studies, designed by women of color partnering with pregnant through postpartum Black and Brown women and individuals to understand the impact of stress, anxiety, and racism on preterm birth in addition to resilience and coping as protective factors.
She is a former co-coordinator of the Family Planning and Reproductive Choices elective within the Obgyn Department at UCSF and member of Nurse Students of Color. Talita co-authored, Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis, the second publication of Oakland-based Black Women Birthing Justice, of which she is a collective member. Her interests include reproductive justice, honoring and amplifying the voices, experiences, and issues of Black women and individuals across the sexual, reproductive and perinatal continuum, walking alongside birth workers of color who reflect the communities they serve, and improving care for and with Black women and individuals.
Ifeyinwa Asiodu PhD, RN, IBCLC
Ifeyinwa Asiodu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Health Care Nursing at University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing.
As a researcher, registered nurse and lactation consultant, her research is focused on the intersection of racism, systemic and structural barriers, life course perspective, and increasing access to human milk, breastfeeding resources, lactation support, and donor human milk. Dr. Asiodu uses a critical ethnographic lens to inform her work. She is also actively engaged in local, state and national breastfeeding, reproductive health, maternal and child health, and public health organizations geared toward achieving birth and breastfeeding equity and justice. Dr. Asiodu received her BSN from the University of Southern California, MS and PhD from UCSF School of Nursing and completed postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois, at Chicago.
Daphina Melbourne
Daphina is a mother of three beautiful children.
It was Daphina’s experience with respectful care as a teen mother that propelled her into working to bring equity and justice to all women who seek reproductive health care. Daphina has over 15 years of experience working with community members and Community Based Organizations to bring a reproductive justice framework to their lives and organizations. Daphina’s expertise lies in developing culturally appropriate innovative ways to engage women of color and their families around reproductive justice, access, and advocacy from youth to women of advanced maternal age.
Now, a Community Engagement Specialist at UCSF’s Preterm Birth Initiative; Daphina uses her years of lived and professional experience to bring community to the center of research. Through her work, the needs and priorities of the communities most impacted by disperate care, maternal mortality, and preterm birth are heard, respected and brought from the margins to the center of discovery and change in health care.
Lastly, a majority of Daphina’s personal time is used to elevate and uplift the work of Community Based Doulas and Doula Programs as a trained birth Doula she has a desire to improve the lives of Birthing Folks of Color across the diaspora.
Daphina is a collective member of Black Women Birthing Justice and and Advisory Board Member of Sisterweb Doulas.
Jennifer E. James
Jen an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco
She is a qualitative researcher and Black Feminist scholar whose research lies at the intersection of race, gender and health. Dr. James holds a PhD in Sociology from UCSF, a Master’s of Social Work and a Master’s of Science in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yale University. Jen is a mom of two and lives with her wife in San Francisco. She was inspired to do more research and activism in the birth space after her own experience giving birth in a setting that felt highly medicalized and out of her control.
Jessica A. Walker
Jessica Walker is a Digital Media SME
Maternal mental health expert, Jessica Walker, is an author, content creator and digital media Subject Matter Expert (SME) who strives to create content that brings culture shifting stories to the forefront of society through digital platforms. She has appeared on NPR, Good Day Sacramento, Fox 40, Sway in the morning, Babycenter, Jimmy Kimmel Live and a host of other media outlets to share the extreme importance of birthing advocates to give a voice to mothers. With a BA in Psychology from The University of Phoenix and a Positive Psychology certificate from the University of California, Berkeley, Jessica is known for creating culturally relevant content and literature to help mothers navigate perinatal and postpartum life as well as encourage partnerships between healthcare providers and birthing advocates. Jessica is the author of a self help book, ‘I Wish Somebody Would’ve Told Me’ which tells the story of how she overcame her battle with depression and anxiety after childbirth.
Jessica serves as the co-chair of the Sacramento Maternal Mental Health Collaborative and is an active member of Black Women Birthing Justice. Outside of her work in maternal mental health, you can find Jessica dancing with her daughters on Instagram stories & breaking down Tupac lyrics with her sons on her family YouTube channels.