Oklahoma Birth Equity Initiative urges city support for community-based doulas, hospital TeamBirth to address Black maternal disparities

Omari Jimerson, executive director of the Oklahoma Birth Equity Initiative, told the Beyond Apology Commission on April 17 that Black women in Oklahoma are about 3.2 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women and outlined programs designed to reduce that gap.

The commission meeting in Tulsa opened with a presentation from Jimerson (who identified the initiative as “OK BAE”), which described the group’s community-based doula program, hospital partnership work called TeamBirth, a Queens Village-style community model, and plans to support midwifery training in rural areas.

Jimerson said OK BAE offers no-cost community-based doula services to people who identify as Black, Native/indigenous, Latina, teens and people navigating the justice system or substance-use treatment. “On average, we touch our clients more than 30 times,” Jimerson said, describing prenatal, birth and intensified postpartum support. She said clients supported by the program in Tulsa now show preterm birth and low-birth-weight rates trending closer to those for white women, and that births attended by OK BAE doulas have a lower cesarean rate.

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