Jamaa Birth Village
A space for pregnancy and postpartum care to be nurtured and celebrated
- Client
- Jamaa Birth Village
- Location
- Missouri, United States
- Size
- 6,300 square feet
- Status
- In Progress
Jamaa Birth Village is a dynamic maternal health organization featuring Missouri’s first Black-certified midwife, Okunsola Amadou. Jamaa provides Midwifery and Doula care services for pregnant people who are low-risk, for both medicated and unmedicated births, at any birthing location such as home, birth centers or hospitals.
Through Open Hand Studio, our platform for public interest design, we've partnered with Jamaa on several projects. These include renovating a building in Ferguson, Missouri into clinic space and creating the Jamaa Birth Village Birth Center and Postpartum Retreat Haven.
Designing the Jamaa Birth Village clinic
In 2020, Open Hand Studio of CannonDesign helped bring Okunsola’s vision to life by renovating a building in Ferguson, Missouri to become the clinic space for Jamaa Birth Village. The building is filled with purple, the color of midwives and a prominent color in African culture and heritage. Amethyst crystals are scattered throughout, promoting relaxation and therapeutic healing.
The space includes examination rooms, a mental health therapy room, a lactation and doula room, storage for breast milk and clothes, an herbal apothecary, and a children's playroom among other amenities.
Testimonials
Revolutionizing how we care for women and families post-birth
Continuing our partnership with Jamaa Birth Village, Open Hand Studio is now helping Okunsola bring her vision for the Jamaa Birth Village Birth Center and Postpartum Retreat Haven to life. Inspired by the sacred traditions of Black Diasporic and African Indigenous midwifery, the center will sit on a 5,000-square-foot parcel of land near the existing clinic, giving women a single setting for birth and extended postpartum care.
The project responds to stark disparities highlighted in a 2021 Missouri Department of Health report, which found Black women are four times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than white women.
Jamaa Birth Village Birth Center & Postpartum Retreat Haven will transform postpartum care for Black women. Featuring four postpartum retreat huts, three water birthing suites and a wellness garden, the center addresses critical health disparities and inequities. Inspired by African design principles, it embraces a communal layout and offers holistic care so Black mothers can thrive after childbirth, not just survive it. Mothers will have access to a week of postpartum care with doulas and newborn care specialists.
Culturally Informed Care
Jamaa (pronounced Jah-mah) means family in Swahili. That concept became the foundation for the design and care approach. Rooted in culturally informed care, the birth center and postpartum retreat are intentionally designed to reflect the values, traditions, and lived experiences of the community they serve. Warm, communal, and inspired by the ancestral cultures of Africa, the facility also includes an adjacent Cultural Heritage Center that supports education, connection, and celebration of cultural identity for families and the surrounding community.
The project is set to be completed in 2028, and is being designed and delivered in partnership with Tao + Lee Associates.
