At the age of seven, Shafia was called to be a healer. Her journey began with helping ill animals. As she grew, she also began helping the elderly, and by the young age of 17, after learning about the high infant mortality rates in the Black community, she was called to continue her journey of healing as a midwife.

Her life and her work both serve as the embodiment of healing. She is blessed to be called to inspire and encourage others to take up the cause and improve birth outcomes. From sharing her life story that led her to this work, to speaking up for those most vulnerable, or by creating shared space for inclusion for all, she inspires the audience to claim their power and stand for birth justice.

Through her vestige, she has inspired thousands to claim their inner calling as change agents, midwives, doulas, and birth workers, and empowered families to embrace the beauty of giving birth and breastfeeding; in so doing, she has helped to rebuild communities by reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, one mother and baby at a time.

Shafia calls us to the work of ‘birthing change’ – increasing personal capacity as health care professionals, doulas, and birth workers, that will ensure reproductive justice, a future with better birth outcomes, and a world where all babies see their first birthday.

To hear Monroe speak is to be motivated and called to the service of change-making, or as one midwife student so aptly stated: “to be dubbed as leader and healer.” For as Monroe says, “We are divinely guided, truly blessed, and living our success right now – from this place, we can achieve anything.”