UmmSalaamah has been a midwife for 40 years and has attended over 4000 births in all settings across the globe. She is the current President of Community Midwives National Alliance and founding sister, and a board member of Bellies to Babies Foundation.

Umm Salaamah “Sondra” Abdullah-Zaimah,  will be turning 79 this year and has been practicing midwifery for nearly 44 years. She is the oldest practicing midwife in the US. UmmSalaamah was studying to become a nurse with the goal of becoming a nurse midwife when her daughter became pregnant again. This time, UmmSalaamah reached out to Ina May Gaskin and the Farm community for training.  Recalling an initial training at the Farm, UmmSalaamah says, “I fell in love with how they did things at the Farm. I came home, I quit my job, I bought a van and wrote a letter and told Ina May I was on my way.” UmmSalaamah spent two years on the Farm, and then returned home to her family in Brooklyn to work with her community. She went on to become a certified nurse midwife and has worked with communities across the country and the world, including Georgia, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Honduras, Ghana and many others. She has helped to launch or support a number of international projects, including a maternal health clinic in Senegal. Sharing her insights with others working internationally: “If you go in with an attitude of respect and love, you see other people – as if they are your sister, your daughter, your mother. If you don’t see the outside of a person, but you see that they love their children, want the best for their children, they want the same things you want, if you love them and respect them and are willing to share, rather than coming to tell people what to do, you have a much, much better relationship and you are in a position to learn. It has to be a sharing, compassionate, loving relationship.”

She is particularly focused on ensuring that her knowledge – and the knowledge of other elder midwives – gets shared with the next generation of midwives. “The more I can train women to recognize when they need to transport, to recognize problems, and pass those on, the more I am sharing good practices among women. There’s an African proverb that says if you teach a man, you teach an individual. If you teach a woman, you teach a nation. She is going to share with her community.” She recently co-founded Community Midwives National Alliance with the intention to grow more midwives and develop programs accredited by the Accreditation Commission of Direct-Entry Midwifery Education.

Umm Salaamah has devoted significant time and energy to the midwifery community, including serving on the MANA board, chairing the committee that became the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) and serving on the NARM board.

Umm Salaamah provides critical support to a number of organizations, including serving as the midwifery director for Birthing Project USA, an international organization and resource center for improving birth outcomes for women of color. She is a founding member and director of midwifery education of the International Center for Traditional Childbearing. The organization was created to promote the health of women and their families and to train Black women aspiring to become midwives.

She is also a founder of Midwives On the Move (MOM). MOM is a committed group of midwives, aspiring midwives, doulas, nurses, birth activists, consumers and volunteers working together in the U.S. and Ghana, West Africa, to exchange midwifery skills, knowledge and ideas.

Adapted from MOM, Umm now helps Chair Bellies to Babies Foundation’s M.O.M Drive, providing screening and donations for mothers and babies.

Today, one of her goals is to ensure that all women have access to community-based midwifery. “I think that every community should have their own midwife, someone who understands their culture who they already trust, someone who is a part of their community, who has known them since they are children. I don’t think it is good for a people to have to take their most most vulnerable members – their pregnant women and brand new babies – off to another culture, that is not always respecting their rituals or their culture.”

One midwife is chosen each year to be the recipient of The Sage Femme award. It honors a grand midwife, past or present, who has practiced the art of midwifery over many years. One whose work, perseverance and dedication will serve as an inspiration to midwives future and present. Learn more about the Sage Femme award and MANA’S 2013 convention.

training when her community needed her services, and traveled to The Farm to begin her midwifery journey. Ina May Gaskin was one of her first teachers. She caught over 4000 babies in homes, hospitals and birth centers in 10 states, Honduras and 2 African countries. She was a Clinical Director in Senegal for 2 years and has been active in the rebirth of direct entry midwifery in this country as an early board member of the Midwives Alliance of North America, Chair of the committee that became the North American Registry of Midwives and a member of their 1st board. After being a home birth midwife for 12 years she earned a Masters in Midwifery from Emory University, the 1st black woman to graduate that program. UmmSalaamah has an NGO in Ghana & is Senior Midwife & preceptor at a homebirth practice in Atlanta, Mandala Midwifery. She is dedicated to sharing her knowledge & experience as widely as possible & helping black women & women of color to become midwives & birth workers. Today she attends births in metro Atlanta, and teaches Advanced Midwife workshops at The Farm. She is also on the advisory board and an instructor for Bellies to Babies Foundation’s A.U.D.I.T Birth  advanced instructors, training community doulas and midwives.