We see you: Global Perinatal Services (GPS)

As part of the Fund’s commitment to elevating truthful Black narratives and connecting communities for collective power, we are excited to share brief highlights of our We See You grantees.

Learn more about their work, their vision for a free Black future, and the ways the community can support moving forward.

1.   Who are you as an organization?

We are Global Perinatal Services (GPS), a nonprofit that provides community-based doula services free of charge for Black, refugee, and immigrant communities. We have trained and mentored doulas from these communities, with over 20 years experience working in the perinatal sector. Our maternal health care system was not working for Black and brown folks long before the major media outlets discovered it. Our goal at GPS is to train and compensate fairly birth workers from our communities. Representation matters and we are constantly reflecting and challenging the work we are doing at GPS, while continuously seeking inputs from the communities we are serving.

2.   What is your vision for a free Black future, and how is your organization contributing to that vision?

Our vision for a free Black future is to give power and autonomy of pregnancy and birthing back to the Black person. To do this, we need to have birth workers who are able to deliver information and advocate for Black families. We need free doula, lactation, and midwifery mentorship for any Black person who wants to go into birth work. And once birth workers complete their training, we need to be able to make sure they are paid competitive wages. This is exactly what the foundation of GPS is based on.

GPS doesn't only train and hire, we also make sure that our staff have access to professional development, when our staff have the know-how they can serve our communities better. GPS provides services in 15 different languages because we want to make sure that individuals from marginalized communities have access to doula services if they so choose. We truly believe that community-based doula services and community midwives are the answer to improving the maternal health care crisis for Black women.

3.   How has the Black Future Co-op Fund helped support your work? In what other ways would you like more support?

Funds from the Black Future Co-op Fund have helped us serve more families and provided much-needed professional development for our staff. In the nonprofit sector, unrestricted funds don't come by easily so when we get such funding it elevates the burden because it allows us to allocate it where we need it the most. We are beyond proud of Black Future Co-op Fund; it is a much-needed organization. We were especially touched when you all awarded us the We See You award last year. It feels especially good to be SEEN by another Black organization.

Our work is not done yet, We are in the process of opening the first Black midwife-run birth center in Washington state. We received the keys to the building this past May and hope to be open for business at the end of this year. Our dream for this birth center is that it will be a space where Black moms deliver their babies in a safe environment by those who look like them. A place where state-of-the-art knowledge about maternal health is shared and Black aspiring midwives are trained.

Here is a link for you to learn more about the birth center.