Black Midwives Fellowship
Black Midwives Fellowship
With the understanding that Black women and their infants have the worst outcomes of any other group in the US and globally. It is imperative that we begin to sit at the feet of those who are optimizing these numbers and gather tools that center our vitality. For 25 years, the community that we will be immersed and in communion with, lived through unimaginable atrocities in a civil war.
As Black people in the diaspora, we are still very much so feeling the historical implications of what our ancestors endured, while dealing with the current manifestations. Imagine experiencing it first hand as our sister midwives in Northern Uganda have.
YET, in the 20 years that Mother Health International (MHI) has been in collaboration with this community, they have co-created a methodology for midwifery care that folds in traditional/indigenous healing and care that deeply centers the needs and experiences of the community. As such, have never lost a Mom. They have served close to 25,000 mothers and babies. The infant Mortality rate in the region is 44/1,000 while at MHI its 11/1,000.Led by traditional midwife Sumayyah Franklin and learning midwife Nikiya Ellis-Chavis, both of whom have spent time at the birth center in Uganda, and in deep partnership with our Ugandan midwives, this trip will be an opportunity to share, learn and expand.
This trip will be an opportunity for Black midwives and advanced student midwives to immerse in the culture of Traditional Midwifery in Northern Uganda. To work together to create communities of care, centering our collective resilience.
The Black Midwives Fellowship is a skills development initiative that brings Black midwives to MHI’s birth center to work alongside the midwives there and to exchange skills. The fellowship consist of a year long curriculum that presents and explores the history of the Acholi people, language, midwifery protocols, and trauma informed care. While visiting the birth center the fellows will attend prenatal appointments, births, postpartum check ups, and assist in the outreach program. They will also visit with the midwives and present a skill share as to foster community and connection. After the trip the midwives will continue to meet virtually as to integrate their experience and to support them in applying what that learned to their own individual practices and communities. This fellowship intends to provide a tangible example of how centering traditional midwifery care can optimize the maternal health outcomes in communities who are impacted them most.
We are raising funds to reach
Our $100,000 Goal
Midwives Are The Antidote
For many years we have been building relationship and community with the beautiful people of Atiak. Even through the most heinous of histories they have resurrected and preserved their traditional practices which has sustained their lives. The most impacted people of the maternal health crisis are Black mothers and their infants. We hope to build bridges that invoke transformation, frameworks, tools, and skills to bring sustainable community rooted care to our own communities.
You got questions? We got answers…
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We are defining advanced student midwives as those who have clinical skills and experience equivalent to the “primary” stage of the NARM requirements. We do recognize traditional midwifery pathways so you would need to be in your clinical apprenticeship where you are practicing under supervision and therefore able to perform prenatal sessions and assessments, birth intake, take all vitals needed for mom and baby, and have understanding of the complete physiological process of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. You do not need to have proficiency in the skill but understanding.
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It is mandatory for all participants to attend the entire time of October 6th-29th, 29027. As well as full participate and complete the curriculum.
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We intentionally aim to have an intimate cohort as to ensure each fellow receives ample support throughout the process. Therefore, we will accept about 8-10 fellows to join us.
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Applications are due by October 29th, 2026 at 11:59pm EST.
Interviews will take place November 9-23rd, 2026
Applicants accepted into the fellowship will be informed by the first week of December.
Deposits of $750 usd are due by Jan 18th 2027
Orientation will be January 18th, 2027 at 6pm est
First class will be February 1st, 2027 at 6pm est
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It is mandatory for all fellows to fully participate and complete the pre departure curriculum and the capstone project after the trip. This course will not only prepare the fellows for the clinical immersion in Uganda but equip them with the frameworks, tools, and knowledge regarding solutions to eradicate the Black maternal health crisis. Fellows will explore how they can positively contribute and strategize how to optimize the outcomes in their own communities and beyond. This curriculum is a rigorous college level course with books, articles, documentaries, and studies to read, analyze, and reflect on.
Class schedule is each 1st Monday on the month at 6pm est - 8pm est starting February 1st, 2027 until September 6th, 2027. Study group will be every 3rd Monday of the month at 6pm est starting February 15th 2027 until September 20th, 2027.
Students will gain access to the curriculum and the reading portal after they make their deposit. We provide all reading and study materials to complete the curriculum.
Fellows will be required to share reflection questions, book reports, and write essays for each module.
Each month there will be a 2 hour mandatory class time as well as approximately 5-10 hours worth of reading and writing to be submitted into the portal each month.
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The fellowship registration fee is $6,000 usd. Fellows are required to pay a deposit of $750 by January 8th, 2027. which will go towards the total fee. We offer scholarships based upon the funding that we receive for each cohort. Fellows are encouraged to call in their community to support them via our ongoing fundraiser. Deposits are due whether a fellow is receiving a scholarship or not.
Payment plans will be determined for each fellow once they are accepted, complete all onboarding paperwork and submit their deposit.
All payments are to be finalized by September 15th, 2027.
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We encourage anyone to apply who feels they are a strong candidate for the fellowship requirements. If monetary resources were prohibitive then we would do our very best to accommodate via funding and fundraising. We do encourage each fellow to fundraise on their own.
Our past two cohorts have included fellows with varying levels of financial resources and access to funding. We intend to continue creating a fellowship that is accessible to people across a range of financial circumstances. While the cost of the fellowship reflects the true cost of providing this experience and is not something we intend to change, we believe that a person’s financial resources should not determine whether they have the opportunity to participate.
As we are located in the horn of Africa where maternal and infant outcomes are some of the worst globally we are very passionate about ensuring those who are from and serve these or similar to these communities are able to join us.
With that being said, we encourage all qualifying midwives to apply and express their individual situation, apply for scholarship through us, and to use our fundraiser to call in heir community to support them.
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It is up to the discretion and due process of your learning institution to accept us an international clinical site or not. You would need to go through the designated proposal process for your learning institution. We are more than qualified clinically and have been able to provide clinical sign offs for past fellows. However, if you are interested in applying this is not a guarantee so you should keep this in mind and determine if you will continue either way.
While we certainly understand the importance of fulfilling clinical requirements. This experience goes far beyond clinical numbers and is well worth it to fortify your skills as a future midwife.
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Due to the rigorous clinical environment we are not able to accommodate children or other family members during the fellowship. We have made this decision after much deliberation. We are each mothers and midwives ourselves and have personal experiences bringing our own children to the birth center. Therefore, we have concluded that it will take away from the fellows ability to fully immerse in the clinical requirements to have to actively mother as well. Additionally, we have limited space to accommodate extra adults to care for the children.
Meet The Founders
Nikiya Ellis Chavis
Nikiya Ellis Chavis is a mother, student midwife, birth worker, and urban farmer rooted in Richmond, Virginia. With more than a decade in birth work and over 200 births attended, Nikiya has dedicated her work to supporting families through culturally rooted, community-centered care.
As a student midwife at Mother Health International’s birth center in Uganda, Nikiya has been immersed in a model of maternity care grounded in community, relationship, and collaboration. Working alongside traditional midwives and experiencing this model firsthand has profoundly shaped her vision of herself as a future midwife and expanded her understanding of what is possible for community-based birth care.
Nikiya is one of the co-founder’s of the Black Midwives Fellowship, created to expand access to hands-on learning, mentorship, and transformative international experiences for Black student midwives and midwives.
Upon completing her training, Nikiya will be the only practicing Black midwife serving families in Richmond, Virginia. She intends for the fellowship to inspire each fellow to bringing the knowledge, relationships, and community-centered model of care experienced in Uganda back home to their practices as midwives. .
Co-Founder
Sumayyah Franklin
Sumayyah “Sumi” Franklin is a traditional midwife, mother, healer, business and life coach, and master trainer and mentor for birth workers and sacred entrepreneurs. She is also the co-founder of the Black Midwives Fellowship.
Sumi first arrived at the birth center in 2015 as an advanced student midwife. Immersing herself in a community-based model of care where traditional midwives and nurse-midwives worked seamlessly alongside one another profoundly transformed her understanding of what midwifery could be. She left inspired by the possibility of bringing Black midwives into similar spaces of learning, connection, and transformation and began dreaming (alongside Nikiya and the founder of MHI Rachel, Zaslow) of what would eventually become the Black Midwives Fellowship.
Through the Black Midwives Fellowship, she hopes to offer other Black midwives the kind of transformative immersion, relationship, and expanded vision that changed the course of her own life and work and aligns us all with the tools and frameworks to eradicate the Black maternal and infant health crisis.
Co-Founder
Program coordinator Natalie Reid
Natalie Reid is a Jamaican wellness practitioner, cultivator, and birth worker dedicated to nurturing and empowering her community through birth and holistic care. Based in Kingston, Jamaica, she works as a birth worker and doula, midwifery assistant, massage therapist, and aromatherapist, and is attuned to Reiki Level I.
Natalie joined the inaugural cohort of the Black Midwives Fellowship in 2025 and currently serves as Fellowship Coordinator, supporting the program through administration, logistics, and fund development.
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