Hey community,

My name is Anja, primary midwife and mother of 3.

Many of you have been following me on my midwifery journey since 2019.

I have been so fortunate to be supported from friends, family and the larger community through monetary donations, gifting of text books and other supplies I need.

A little over a year ago, I was blessed beyond measure to have my entire gofundme campaign funded. The funds raised went directly towards my midwifery tuition and purchasing a few costly textbooks that I needed as well as the percentage gofundme takes out.

In the past year, my school has increased the cost of tuition. I now have a remaining balance of $7,000. In addition to this remaining balance, there are some midwifery supplies I need to support me in my primaries.

Being a primary midwife means I am actively taking on midwifery clients under the supervision of a licensed professional midwife. Some of the supplies I need include a doppler which costs $600-700.

As a primary midwife, I am working at an accredited birth center in Silver Lake and under a licensed professional home birth midwife in downtown Los Angeles. Working as a primary midwife takes up all of my time, and it is work that is not paid.

I also want to take the time to point out that they are less than 20 Black licensed midwives in the state of California. Black women are still dying at higher rates than any other race in childbirth and postpartum. Just this month, January 2023, a black woman died at a hospital in Inglewood, California due to medical neglect.

There is a sense of urgency to get more black midwives out into the community. One of the biggest obstacles to black midwives becoming licensed is the financial burden. I am so close to the finish line! I have declared my graduation date December 2023 and I will be done with all of my hands on clinical skills in Summer 2023.

I am calling on your support once again to help me raise the additional funds I need to take care of my tuition and get the remaining supplies I need to better perform my job as a midwife.

Thank you for your donations and your support!

Anja Akhile

Primary midwife under supervision

Statistics about black midwives and the state of black birthing:

-As of 2020 there are only 6.85% black midwives

-As of 2020, the mortality rate of black mothers in childbirth has increased to 55.3 deaths out of every 100,000 live births