Helping health care professionals achieve cultural competency, increase clients, and improve birth outcomes.
Shafia Monroe is a veteran midwife, doula trainer, and founder of the International Center for Traditional Childbearing, now the National Association to Advance Black Birth (NAABB). She is president of Shafia Monroe Consulting, LLC, owner of SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion Training, LLC and she is a cultural competency trainer and motivational speaker. Her life’s work has been dedicated to improving maternal and infant in the Black community. Monroe believes that her glass is half-full and that we all can birth change. Monroe is a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. She loves inspiring new families. Learn more.

A legend, a legacy
Shafia, you are a legend and your legacy is the seed you have planted and nurtured in so many women, and the way they are spreading like wildfire.

2nd Annual SMC Doula Conference
Theme: Restoring Our Village to Improve Birth Outcomes

Dates: September 8 – 10, 2023
Location: Doubletree by Hilton Hotel,
1000 NE Multnomah Street
Portland, Oregon
Train to be a Doula at SMCDoulas.com
Shafia Monroe Consulting
Shafia Monroe Consulting (SMC) provides training, webinars, keynote presentations, motivational speaking, and consulting for health professionals to reach their goals in professional development, cultural competency, and better birth outcomes.
Stay Informed with Recent Blog Posts
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“Investing in Maternal & Infant Health, streamed on December 2, 2021. Sponsored by March of Dimes.”
Hear Shafia Monroe, speak on how to improve maternal health (Start from the beginning to hear Shafia speak.) The Hill’s Steve Clemons discusses investing in maternal & infant health with experts and Shafia Monroe, DEM, CDT, MPH (President, Shafia Monroe Consulting/Birthing CHANGE, Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, RADM USPHS (Director, Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for…
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Healthcare Disparities Black Women Receive and What to Do About Them
To say that we live in a post-racial society would be a gross myth and incorrect claim. Those who cannot “see race” only claim so because race may not be weaponized against them. Systemic racism continues to infiltrate institutions, further embodied by individuals who systemically act on their prejudice. This happens with such frequency, in alarming…
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Preterm Birth Prevention Strategies
At SMC, we appreciate November Prematurity Awareness Month, part of the March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Campaign which began in 2003. Through education, voice, social media, events, community service projects and more, individuals and organizations come together to reduce the number of premature births. Preterm is defined as babies born alive before 37 weeks of…
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Don’t Lose a Tooth for Every Baby: Pregnancy and Oral Health
Oral health during pregnancy is especially important for the pregnant woman/person. The old wives’ tale that says a pregnant woman loses a tooth for every pregnancy should not be accepted as the norm. Perhaps this saying comes from the fact that with poor oral health and a poor diet, a mother’s teeth were negatively impacted…
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Traditional Southern Postpartum Chicken Soup
Though labor and birthing are a miracle and a joy, it is the greatest physical demand on the female body. It is estimated that a laboring woman use approximately 100 calories per hour in labor (Kordi, M., et al 2017). Postpartum women/people need quality-dense food to begin a healthy postpartum recuperation. Soup is an excellent…
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Perinatal Safety and Coronavirus
Guidelines SMC’s position on the Coronavirus for SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companions is to be safe and up to date on the guidelines. Please use the Center for Disease Control(www.cdc.gov), National Institute of Health (NIH,gov) and PubMed, for prevention and safety guidelines against the Coronavirus. Because the findings are changing by the second, we…