July 8, 2026

Birth Justice Now: How Ms. Foundation for Women is resourcing community-based birth justice solutions

Since launching the Birth Justice Initiative in 2022, Ms. Foundation for Women has invested in grassroots organizations working to transform maternal and infant health outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and other communities that have been historically pushed to the margins. This report reflects on four years of funding, partnership, and learning across a growing national movement for birth justice.

Through building relationships with and making investments in community-based organizations, birth justice leaders, birth centers, doulas, midwives, advocates, and culture bearers, Ms. Foundation has witnessed firsthand how communities most impacted by maternal health inequities are building effective, sustainable solutions. The report shares key lessons for philanthropy and offers a roadmap for funders seeking to support birth justice in ways that are accountable, transformative, and rooted in community leadership.

At its core, this report makes clear that birth justice is more than improving outcomes within existing systems. It is about advancing community self-determination, restoring culturally rooted models of care, and building new systems that allow people most impacted by disparities in birth experiences and outcomes to experience safe, dignified, and affirming pregnancies, births, and postpartum care.