Since 2004, we have advocating for mothers in Alabama.

Jessica is a wife and a mom to 3 boys. All 3 sons were born under the supervision of two amazing midwives. The last being born at her South Alabama home under the care of a Certified Professional Midwife. She is a full time photographer and loves to garden, go to the beach, and explore food. When she was pregnant with her first, she attended a Bradley Method Birthing Class and was introduced to the evidenced based model of maternity care. She soon realized that the options that she was seeking were very limited in the State of Alabama and decided that she wanted to educate anyone she could to advocate for more options for mother's.

Charity (affectionately known by her middle name, LaRae) found her way into birth work after the traumatic birth of her son, Declan Jru. After her medical concerns were ignored by multiple providers, she was rushed into an emergency c-section due to complications from HELLP syndrome. While hospitalized for weeks following her son’s birth, Charity had a strong desire to breastfeed and was met with opposition from her hospital's nursing staff. She was met with implicit bias and micro aggressions such as “y’all don’t breastfeed that long anyway. He may as well get used to formula while he’s here” among other statements. She turned to social media, Facebook specifically, for support.

Facebook is where she found her voice and educated herself on lactation practices, guidelines, found training programs and later co-found Chocolate Milk Mommies with other local mommas. From lactation, she saw a natural progression in her career, leading her to become a Full Spectrum Doula (trained by Birthing Advocacy) and now, a student midwife.

She has served on several panels, boards and with many organizations across Alabama such as the Alabama Perinatal Quality Collaborative, The MAMA Collaborative (another project she co-found), The Cohill Foundation, and the Alabama Midwives Alliance. Charity offers teachings at Universities across the country on Foundational Midwifery, Biological Weathering, and Health Disparities. In 2019, she was accepted into the Midwives College of Utah where she began her studies in January of 2020 and was elected to the Alabama Birth Coalition Board of Directors in early 2021. She currently serves the state from North Alabama to Montgomery as a Primary Student Midwife and Certified Lactation Educator.

Latolvia is a wife and mom to four children, three of which were born at home. Her decision to pursue home birth was heavily influenced by a poor hospital experience with her first child. She hopes to bridge the gap in healthcare and be an advocate to allow women of color more health and birth options in Alabama.

My name is Kate Landreth Petty and I am a mother to 4. I am the treasurer for the Alabama Birth Coalition. My first two births were by the medical model and in a hospital setting. One of those births ended with the loss of my sweet Eliza. She is the reason I am here on the ABC Board of Directors. Eliza’s hospital birth opened a whole new world that didn’t include just the medical model of care but instead used the evidence based birth model of care. I met an amazing obstetrician named Brad Bootstaylor and my life was forever changed. He helped me realize that the trauma that I experienced with Eliza wasn’t the way that every birth had to be. When I became pregnant with my third child, I planned a home away from home birth. Our son was born in our RV with CPMs in Georgia with Dr. Bootstaylor of See Baby as backup. Since CPMs are licensed in the State of Alabama now, we were excited to have our baby at home - no camper needed!
I also have another big project in the working to honor Eliza! Eliza's Legacy is supporting moms who need help paying for their midwives!

Aaron is a father to 6 beautiful children and is concerned with the freedom for mothers in Alabama to choose to birth how they wish. Personal experience has convinced him that hospitals procedures are not a perfect science and that the maternal psychological factor is a major consideration that is largely ignored by medical professionals. Of the 5 births he has attended, 3 were at home and the other 2 were in hospitals. Each time, the setting was a large factor in the comfort and ease of labor for his wife. With the advent of CPMs in Alabama largely due to the efforts of the Alabama Birth Coalition, Aaron desires to give back to ABC and ensure women who share the needs of his wife for home birth have the option to do so freely and safely. He wishes to bring recognition of the individual citizen and the respect and honor that should afford to mothers in Alabama.

Aaron is a musician, independent videogame designer, and is in the process of establishing a homestead. His wife is an artist and a self proclaimed "Crazy Chicken Lady." She also homeschools their children ages 14, 11, 9, 6, 1, and 0.7 at the time of writing. Aaron works as an Engineer, but would rather be tending his pecan trees, bees, and garden or just vegging out on some epic gaming adventure.

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I am 27 and live in Phenix city with my two kiddos. What started my interest and passion in birth is actually my own experiences with birth. When I had my son, as a first time mom planned a hospital birth and really had no idea what I was doing, what to research, or what to expect. When I ended up in an emergency c-section I really felt like my body failed me for quite some time. However the more I started to research I realized I was actually failed by my providers. Because I wasn’t given informed consent, my birth did not go according to plan. I started researching home birth and when I got pregnant with my daughter and I somehow got in contact with Kate through Facebook! She offered to be my doula (and became my best friend along the way) and helped me navigate planning a home (away from home) birth. After my daughter was born, and having a successful hbac I knew that I had a strong interest in birth. That’s when I decided I wanted to become a doula myself. I wanted to help people have an informed birth, no matter the setting it took place, even though I do have a special place in my heart for home birth. What interested me in being on the board was that Alabama needs better options for birth. Being a vbac mama, right now I still can’t legally have a home birth with a midwife present in Alabama so that will personally effect me if I ever have any more children, and I know there are lots of mamas in my shoes as well. I know it was mentioned that it may be a few more years until we go back for vbacs but I would love to be able to be a voice for vbac mamas wanting a home birth, and also help improve birth in general in Alabama. ​

Lisa Clark moved to Alabama from Texas in 1996, when she became involved with efforts to license Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs). She has been an advocate for birth options in Alabama ever since. She believes all women deserve to be respected during pregnancy and birth. She is motivated by the dream of all mothers having evidence-based care from the provider of their choice in the setting where they are most comfortable.

Lisa is a postpartum doula in Huntsville. She en​joys helping new parents navigate the early challenges of life with a new baby. Her own four kids are grown and glad they’re not being dragged to Montgomery anymore. She loves being Mimi to one grandson, and when she has free time she might spend it sewing, paper crafting, crocheting, watching Netflix originals, or curling up with a good book and a cup of tea.