Mama Claudia Taught Me
April 8, 2020Moments like this make me miss Mama Claudia Booker more than ever. I wonder on a daily basis what her response would be to this post, or that piece or other. How many discussions, texts, calls and emails we would have shared by now. How she would probably be telling me what I need to be doing to support Black midwives. I crave her guidance and her wisdom in this very moment.
Mama Claudia was the very first member of NBMA in 2018. She called me when she saw the email inviting Black midwife elders to be involved. She usually responded to my emails with a phone call. She asked what she could do to support. She took the time to remind me how important this work is and how glad she was that I was doing it. She affirmed me, as she always did, including the first time I met her in 2009 at the International Center for Traditional Childbearing conference in Harlem. I was a student then, and she told me she couldn’t wait to hear about me catching babies.