Ayan Maternity Healthcare Support

Ayan Maternity Health Care Support

Bringing lifesaving doula care to underserved communities

Ayan Maternity Health Care Support provides high-quality perinatal and maternal care. Our mission is to support pregnant women and new mothers in socially and economically vulnerable situations or who experience hardship and challenges.  We support women who have disabilities, are immigrants, those experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, or trauma. This care is essential to those who have more difficulty connecting with existing health care systems.

DOH Birth Equity Project Grants  We are excited to announce that in early 2023, we received a multi-year grant from the Washington State Department of Health Birth Equity Project to provide perinatal support and professional development opportunities to East African immigrants and refugees in King County.   

What we do:  Ayan Maternity provides perinatal and maternal services in King County by providing birth doulas, postpartum doulas, breastfeeding/lactation support, connection to other social services, and childbirth education and parenting classes. The services are essential for better birth outcomes, to reduce maternal and infant health inequities.

Pregnant and birthing mothers, and most especially women of color, can be systematically demoralized, patronized, and unheard by the health care system and often denied the dignity that they deserve. Doulas offer a solution by advocating for the mother in the labor and delivery process which can save more women of color from experiencing complications or dying in childbirth or post-delivery. Since Black women are four times more likely than white women to die during childbirth or due to childbirth-related causes, having the support of a doula can prepare a family for some of the challenges they may experience as people of color.

Good News:  Mothers matched with a doula also have better birth outcomes. Doula-assisted mothers were four times less likely to have a low birth weight (LBW) baby, two times less likely to experience a birth complication involving themselves or their baby, and significantly more likely to initiate breastfeeding.

Secondarily, the organization also provides critical medical support to maternity clinics in rural Somalia and Ethiopia through donations of equipment and medical supplies and volunteer medical personnel in the clinics.  Maternal and infant death rates in Somalia and Ethiopia are among the highest in the world. Decades of conflict have decimated the nation’s infrastructure, including basic health services. This support is critical for women with no other options than to have unsafe and unattended home births.

Please Support Us:  Ayan Maternity Health Care Support bridges the global and the local by taking a holistic approach to perinatal and maternal services.  The need for support is great; please consider donating to provide this vital care to mothers, infants, and their families.