About our birth fund
Black Home Birth Matters ATX (BHBMATX) is a community-led initiative dedicated to expanding access to safe, affirming, and culturally responsive home birth care for Black families in the Austin area while investing in the next generation of Black midwives.
We believe every family deserves the opportunity to make informed decisions about their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care regardless of financial circumstance. Yet for many Black families, home birth with a licensed midwife along with other prenatal care that could nourish during pregnancy, remains financially out of reach.
At the same time, aspiring Black midwives face significant financial barriers on the path to licensure. Midwifery education often requires years of unpaid apprenticeship, tuition, supplies, travel, and clinical training, creating obstacles that contribute to the ongoing shortage of Black midwives across the country.
BHBMATX exists to address both needs, both supporting Black families seeking home birth today while helping cultivate the Black midwives who will care for future generations.
Our Mission
Our mission is to improve birth outcomes and expand reproductive autonomy by reducing financial barriers to home birth for Black families and supporting Black student midwives pursuing community-based birth work.
We believe that birth is more than a medical event, it is a profound human experience that deserves dignity, safety, informed choice, and compassionate care.
Through direct financial assistance, community partnerships, and collective investment, we are working toward a future where Black families have greater access to the birth experiences they desire and deserve.
BHBMATX distributes community-funded grants in two primary ways:
Supporting Black Student Midwives
We also provide financial assistance to Black student midwives in the Austin area. Grants may help cover expenses such as tuition, books, birth supplies, licensing costs, travel, and other educational needs. Because most midwifery apprenticeships are unpaid, even modest financial support can make a meaningful difference in helping students remain on the path to becoming licensed midwives.
Every dollar donated strengthens both the care available today and the workforce that will care for generations to come.
Supporting Black Families birthing at home
Funds help offset the out-of-pocket costs associated with home birth midwifery care for eligible Black families in the greater Austin area. Families may use these funds toward care with the Austin-area midwife of their choice, increasing access to community-centered birth options that are too often financially inaccessible.
Our Why
Black women and babies continue to experience disproportionately poor maternal and infant health outcomes in the United States not because of inherent biological differences, but because of longstanding systemic inequities in healthcare.
Research consistently shows that culturally responsive, relationship-centered maternity care improves experiences and outcomes for many families. Community midwives play an important role in expanding birth options, fostering continuity of care, and supporting physiological birth.
Yet financial barriers and the shortage of Black midwives continue to limit access to these models of care.
We believe birth justice means more than surviving pregnancy and birth. It means having meaningful choices, respectful care, trusted providers, and the resources needed to make informed decisions about one's own body and family.