Who We Are
Sista Midwife Productions (SMP) is a birth advocacy training and consulting agency. We create educational events for communities, birth workers, and organizations that work with childbearing families. We provide lectures, consultations and individualized training to organizations, institutions, and governments, at the local, regional, and national level.
Our Mission is simple: To Make Birth Better. Specifically, we are working to improve pregnancy and birth experiences and to eliminate perinatal disparities by increasing the number of Black birth workers, teaching families about their rights and options; and creating transparency and accountability within childbirth education and the medical obstetrical system.
Our Vision is to create a paradigm shift in the ways individuals and communities think about conception, pregnancy, birth, and parenting.
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What We Do
We started Sista Midwife Productions with a BIG vision, to create change using a social entrepreneurship model centered around improving birth outcomes. From our inception we have been a community based and Black Women centered agency. We have been successfully training doulas since 2013 and we are a leading black doula training agency with over 600 students across the United States and 4 international countries. We host the largest and most comprehensive online black birth worker directories. Whether you are looking for a midwife, a doula, lactation or fertility support, you can search our directories to connect with black birth workers nationwide.Our annual event, The Art of Birthing (TAOB), uses various forms of artistic expression to educate communities while celebrating pregnancy and birth. Through TAOB we create a unique space for dialogue and healing for birth professional and families.
We do a significant amount of grant funded community work. Through The Birth Story Project (BSP), we provide a safe space for black women to come together and share their birth experiences for education, support and healing. The BSP also has an online survey that is allowing us to gather data to be used in future birth advocacy efforts. Our Healthy Birth Louisiana (HBL) initiative was created to provide free training to increase the numbers of perinatal community health workers in our state. Between HBL and our signature Birth Sister (doula) training, we have provided nearly 200 scholarships for training and have freely mentored dozens of women who want to serve their communities as birth workers. Learn more about our work with our June 2022 Impact Report.
Our Founder
Nicole Deggins CNM, MSN, MPH, is a certified nurse midwife, birth advocate, black doula trainer, and community educator named The Midwife Shifting the Narrative by ESSENCE Magazine. With nearly 30 years of maternal child health experience Nicole is a dedicated leader, mentor, and consultant and actively supports efforts to increase the numbers of Black midwives, doulas, and birth advocates.
After nearly twenty years working across the country as a labor nurse and midwife, Nicole started Sista Midwife Productions with a goal to improve community education about birth options. Over the years, in every location where she worked, she witnessed pain, anxiety, and misinformation. She was deeply moved by the reality that families were suffering immensely, during a time that was supposed to be filled with joy and love. She wanted to be a catalyst for shifting birth back towards the beautiful, transformational experience she knew it could be. With this foundation and vision, Sista Midwife Productions was born.
What People Are Saying
"Thank you so much for creating the Sista Midwife Directory. It has truly been life changinge for me... and the clients who find me there. Thank you for all that you do!!!"
Touched by Mimi Birth Services