Birth Is Transformational.
And the way we understand birth is shaped by what we know, what we’ve been taught, and what our communities remember.
I’m Shekita Long, a Cultural & Community Doula, Childbirth Educator, Community Health Worker, researcher, speaker, and founder of the Detroit Black Birth Archive.
My work sits at the intersection of birth, education, community health, and history.
Whether I’m sitting with a family preparing for birth, teaching people how to better understand their bodies, speaking to a room of maternal health professionals, or researching Detroit’s Black birth history, my work comes back to one thing:
Knowledge belongs to the community.
Meet Shekita
Shekita (she/her)
I didn’t come into this work believing people needed someone to save them during birth.
I believe people already carry knowledge about birth within themselves. Fear, lack of information, and systems that don’t always make room for people to understand what is happening to their bodies can disconnect us from that knowledge.
Education can reconnect us.
That belief is what guides me as a Cultural & Community Doula and Childbirth Educator. I became a Community Health Worker because I also learned very quickly that the needs families bring into pregnancy don’t begin or end in the delivery room.
Housing matters. Transportation matters. Access to care matters. Community matters. History matters.
Over time, my work with families led me to ask deeper questions about how Black people in Detroit experienced birth before us.
Who delivered our babies?
Where did we give birth? Who were our doctors and midwives? What did families know and practice that we no longer talk about?
Those questions eventually became the Detroit Black Birth Archive.
Today, my work connects the past and the present. I support families preparing for birth, educate communities, research and preserve Detroit’s Black birth history, and speak about what history can teach us about maternal health today.
I’m not interested in building dependency.
Whether I’m working with one family or an entire community, I want people to leave with more knowledge, more confidence, and a deeper understanding of the power they already have.
From Birthwork to Preservation
The Detroit Black Birth Archive grew from a simple realization: I knew a lot about what was happening in Black maternal health today, but I knew very little about the Black people, institutions, traditions, and communities that shaped birth in Detroit before us.
So I started researching.
And the more I found, the more questions I had.
There were Black physicians, hospitals, midwives, mothers, birth workers, community organizations, family traditions, photographs, newspaper stories, and memories that deserved to be part of Detroit’s historical record.
I also realized how easily that history could disappear.
Today, I’m building the Detroit Black Birth Archive to collect oral histories, conduct historical research, preserve materials, create exhibits, and make Detroit’s Black birth history accessible to the community.
I’m not creating this history.
I’m building the infrastructure to make sure we don’t lose it.
what my families say
MY STORY
Why I love being a community doula in Metro Detroit
It is my desire to guide birthing people and their families in achieving the births that they desire. I want women to feel strong and empowered in their labor and delivery, not like someone in need of rescuing. Supporting and guiding women through pregnancy, labor and the postpartum period is honestly not something I ever thought I would do. It has been a personal journey of healing as well as a journey of learning. I give thanks.
A Joyful Birth + Postpartum is Possible for you, too!
My clients have done it and you can, too! Learn more about birth and postpartum doula services by clicking view services below.
