Hopkins, MN — Rebecca Polston is committed to improving Black maternal health care. She founded one of just five Black-owned, accredited birth centers in the country, creating an alternative, culturally based model to reduce health disparities and increase practitioners of color. The center’s C-section, breastfeeding, and serious health issue prevention rates are significantly better than average Twin Cities rates. She believes that the future of positive maternal outcomes depends on more practitioners of color and an integrated system of community-centered care and relationships to larger health systems. To transition from a frontline founder to a leader who can foster replication and scale the model, she seeks time to articulate and translate her work to make it accessible to others. She will also travel to Black birth centers in the U.S. and to countries that have infused anti-racist and cultural practices into maternal health.
