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Midwife Samsarah Morgan Helps Black Women Have Better Births

Published

9 years ago

February 1, 2017

Giving birth takes courage, says Samsarah Morgan, a midwife for 37 years and the founder of the Oakland Better Birth Foundation. “But in this country women are terrified of the birth process. They are frightened to death of what their bodies were made to do.”

Coupled with racism, the impact of this fear is measurable among Black women, where low birth weight and high infant mortality persist despite advances in mainstream medicine.

And Black women in the U.S. are five times more likely than white women to die in childbirth, says Morgan, a mother of five and grandmother of three.

“Doctors talk among themselves about black women as being high-risk,” she says. That high-risk label, even when it is deserved, often puts Black women on the fast track for a highly medicated birth with lasting impact on mother and child.

The pain-relieving epidural drugs impact the child as well as the mother because opiate pain-relievers suppress respiration. “The last thing this (newborn) baby needs to do is learn to breathe,” Morgan says, and that added stress impacts the child’s ability to thrive.

Morgan identifies one post-partum issue for C-Section mothers especially, is being robbed of the victory of giving birth. “They feel that they have failed,” Morgan says and the same can be said of women who don’t, for a variety of reasons, breast-feed their babies.

Samsarah Morgan with students and Better Birth Foundation board members at the Breastfeeding Festival in 2016.

But a little education can go a long way, Morgan says. And the education provided from a midwife, or Doula, provides alternatives. Beginning Feb. 14, she is holding a seven-week series of classes not just for mothers but their partners, grandmothers, fathers, aunts and others because she needs family support in making these decisions.

“They will learn about pregnancy, nutrition, the baby’s development, and what the moms need in each stage of development physically, psychologically and emotionally.”

Morgan’s post-partum work focuses on breastfeeding. It helps the mother’s womb contract to its natural size and reduces the likelihood of breast cancer later in life. For the baby, breast milk is the perfect food resulting in stronger immune systems, even higher IQs.

And the bonding between mother and child is also important.

Despite everyone’s best efforts, tragedy may strike and a child dies. Morgan teaches about that, too. “Women don’t know that they should grieve,” Morgan says, “and friends and family need to know that the woman may always grieve that loss.”

Morgan also makes it clear that she is not “anti-doctor or anti-hospital,” but even mainstream physicians acknowledge that doulas’ work has resulted in fewer C-sections and drug-related interventions.

Now certified by the International Center for Traditional Childbearing, Morgan got her start in the late 1970s informally advising the female partners of male colleagues in the corporation where she worked.

Now holding a Doctorate of Divinity from the now-defunct American Institute of Interfaith Studies as well as licenses in life coaching and hypnotherapy, Morgan brings all of these to bear in her work, which she regards as a ministry.

Familiar with birth stories from around the world, Morgan mentions one where it is during labor that the mother “goes to the island of souls to get her baby.” Natural labor gives her a sense of her abilities to take care of this new soul, Morgan says.

Oakland Better Birth Foundation is located at 370 45^th St. in Oakland. Fees for the seven week series range from $100-$200, but no family will be turned away. For more information, please call (510) 595-5534.

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COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

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June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.