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Midwife Marsha Jackson holds Zohra Marie Weeks after her delivery. Jackson stayed for hours after the birth to monitor mother Tonithia Reid and the baby and make sure they were healthy.
7 Images

Black Midwives

Former National Geographic photographer Karen Kasmauski has been researching and documenting the work of Black midwives in Virginia for more than a year for VCIJ. Her series of photographs traces the relationships formed between midwives and their clients — from initial consultations and prenatal meetings to the birth and support in the months following pregnancy.

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Midwife Marsha Jackson holds Zohra Marie Weeks after her delivery. Jackson stayed for hours after the birth to monitor mother Tonithia Reid and the baby and make sure they were healthy. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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During a prenatal examination, Nichole Wardlaw, a midwife working in Chesapeake, Virginia, speaks to the baby of her client, Earashea Bellamy, who is a week past her due date. Earashea and her husband, Freddie Bellamy, wanted their child to be delivered by a Black midwife. When they couldn’t find one available in their hometown of Richmond, they decided to use the services of Wardlaw, whose practice was close to where Earashea’s mother lives in Hampton, Virginia. The Bellamys stayed in Hampton during the last portion of her pregnancy. Though Wardlaw was able to deliver the baby at home, she took Earashea to Sentara CarePlex Hospital when the new mother started hemorrhaging. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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Midwife Nichole Wardlaw, right, speaks with a manager at Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, Virginia, after checking in with two clients who required a hospital stay. Having hospital privileges allows Wardlaw access to the technology of hospital care while also providing the personal experience of a midwife. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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Doula Mayasa Telfair, center, updates midwife Marsha Jackson on Tonithia Reid’s labor. Only when Telfair was fairly sure Reid was ready to give birth did she call in Jackson. Reid delivered soon after the midwife arrived. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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Midwife Victoria Buchanan, 28, follows up with patient Lexy Rogers, who had been induced a week early, at Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, Virginia. Buchanan had recently joined Sentara Midwifery Specialists at CarePlex, leaving a private practice to devote more time to midwifery and her clients. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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Midwife Marsha Jackson holds 6-week-old Rose Poosz — daughter of Raynesha Sharpe — during a well-baby check at BirthCare & Women’s Health in Alexandria, Virginia. Jackson plans to retire at the end of this year. She estimates she’s delivered nearly 4,000 babies without losing a mother in childbirth. Her success rate counters a stark national statistic: Black women in the United States are three times more likely to suffer a pregnancy-related death than white women. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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At her business BirthCare & Women’s Health in Alexandria, Virginia, co-founder Marsha Jackson displays photographs of babies she has delivered since 1981, when her career as a midwife began. (Karen Kasmauski / Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism at WHRO)
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