With a fulfilling and demanding media career, motherhood wasn’t part of Elaine Welteroth’s five-year plan. And then came son Silver, and with him not only personal joy but an unexpected new mission.
Through her pregnancy, she discovered “just how broken the maternal health care system is in this country”—deaths that could be avoided with better access to midwifery services. “And I felt compelled to do everything in my power to help fix this problem in my lifetime.”
Welteroth is the founder of BirthFund, established to offer needs-based grants to families looking for midwifery care and to press for change so that such services are more widely available–“we know that laws need to change in order for us to scale this work,” she says. The organization partners with three other groups concerned about the same issue: the Birth Equity Center, The Victoria Project and Postpartum Support International.
The new movement draws on both the skills and the relationships Welteroth has developed during a successful career in print and on television. “I’ve made pivots throughout my career, but this does not feel like a pivot,” she says. “It feels like a culmination moment. Now that my eyes have been opened . . . you just can’t turn away from it, you can’t go back to sleep.”
One international healthcare advocacy organization has described the United States’ maternal death rate as at a “crisis” level. In 2022, there were 22 deaths per 100,000 births–down from 32 the previous year but still leaving the U.S. bottom of the list of developed nations. Additionally, the death rate is significantly higher for Black women and other minorities.
12% of U.S. births in 2021 were attended by a midwife.
The number of home births increased by 60% over the past seven years.
At the same time, BirthFund asserts that two out of three of those deaths could be averted by providing midwifery care. However, only around 12% of U.S. births in 2021 were attended by a midwife, whose care is not covered by most insurance policies. “We know that this is preventable and we know what the solutions are, but we’re just not investing in them,” says Welteroth. “That makes no sense.”
A complicating factor is the rise in the number of home births, increasing by 60% over the past seven years. At the same time, there are still a lot of people who don’t know about midwifery or if they have heard of it, not in a positive way. “There’s a lot of unlearning that people need to do,” Welteroth says. “We want to reintroduce, reframe, rebrand midwifery.”
As part of that mission, BirthFund explains to prospective financial supporters how midwives are trained health professionals who take a holistic approach to working with expectant families. “They’re not just using a checklist of clinical needs,” the BirthFund website explains. “They help you prepare for the psychological component of pregnancy, birth and becoming a new parent–not just the physical aspects.”
System failures
Welteroth first became aware of the maternal health issue as a result of her first pregnancy and its challenges. She is grateful for them now, because while you can be an ally without experiencing something personally, “experiencing firsthand the failures of a system makes you an even more effective fighter at changing those systems,” she believes.
Stirred to action, late last year Welteroth initiated a birthday fundraiser to help an expectant family in need. The positive response she received encouraged her to think bigger, leading to BirthFund. Founding partners included tennis great Serena Williams (who has spoken out about maternal health care needs since her own life-threatening scare in giving birth to her first baby, in 2017), John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and Lebron and Savannah James.
BirthFund’s first beneficiaries each received midwifery care, money to start a high-yield savings account, financial advice and other help. “They got so many great resources that I actually believe should be made available to every expanding family or new mother,” says Welteroth. “We’re basically designing a program that’s stepping in to do what the government isn’t willing to do yet.”
In the future, BirthFund also wants to help grow the ranks of midwives. “Sometimes it is cost-prohibitive for BIPOC folks to get the training and development required and we want to remove this financial barrier, so that’s something that is on our roadmap.”
The road from Teen Vogue, where Welteroth was editor-in-chief–only the second African American to hold the title at publisher Conde Nast in its 110-year history–to health care advocate may seem winding, but she sees a clear through line.
During her time at Teen Vogue she was credited with leading the influential fashion magazine’s digital expansion and broadening its coverage to include cultural and political issues. She went on to serve as a judge on Bravo’s Project Runway and had a stint as a co-host of CBS’s The Talk. Her memoir, More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say), won a 2020 NAACP Image Award. Currently she is an advice columnist for The Washington Post, offering wisdom on how to navigate big life changes.
“Even throughout my career in beauty and fashion, I was always trying to work within the intersection of these things and what really matters,” Welteroth says. “I feel like I’ve got my Ph.D. in putting lip gloss on the [things] that actually matter in the world and help people take notice and lean in.” BirthFund “is a way for me to apply all of that for an issue that matters, that feels more urgent than any other.”
Welteroth is emphatic about correcting what she believes are two widespread misconceptions about the maternal health care crisis–first, that it’s a fringe issue, and second, that it’s a minority issue.
“Everyone is impacted by this issue in some way, shape or form,” she says, pointing out that “every single person in this country came from a mother.” Many women who experienced a difficult delivery have never spoken about it; one study found half of American moms described their birthing experience as traumatic.
And while Black women die at three to four times the rate of white women during and after childbirth, Welteroth warns against framing the issue as “a Black woman’s problem to solve.” Because it’s not: “This is a system breakdown that impacts all of us, and as with any other systemic breakdown it’s going to over-index on people of color.”
BirthFund’s mission is “inclusive and for everyone,” Welteroth underscores, even while “we’re very focused on addressing the disparity and we’re very clear on what the disparity is and how this crisis disproportionately impacts Black women.”
Reproductive rights
Joining forces with Williams at BirthFund has been something of a “full circle” moment for Welteroth, linking the platform she now has with her first steps in the world of media.
Having earned a degree in public relations with a minor in journalism from California State University-Sacramento, she applied for an internship at Ebony, where she would go on to work for several years. Editor Harriette Cole invited her to help out at a photoshoot for which she turned up not knowing the subject was Williams. The two have had some contact through the years since, “but for us to be able to come together in this way [at BirthFund], all these years later, to be working in this capacity where we can really drive change around an issue that’s personal for both of us, feels like kismet.”
Welteroth acknowledges the invaluable support in all she is doing of her musician husband, Jonathan Singletary, who one friend described as Welteroth’s flagpole, anchoring and grounding her as she flies. “He really is,” she says, embracing the imagery as “a beautiful metaphor for our marriage and our partnership in everything, from parenting to BirthFund and beyond.”
“EVERYONE IS IMPACTED BY THIS ISSUE IN SOME WAY,SHAPE OR FORM.”
Guys like Jonathan and his father need to be recognized, Welteroth believes. “I don’t think there are enough examples of extremely supportive and independent Black men who are creative and brilliant on their own terms but [also] really supportive fathers and husbands who are anchoring their wives. It’s a beautiful dynamic.”
BirthFund aims to include men in championing improvements in maternal health care “because we know no one is more impacted than the dads that have to come home from the hospital without their partners, and they are left to raise the kids on their own. And those are the stories that we don’t hear enough about.”
With an eye to the forthcoming presidential election, Welteroth highlights the importance of reproductive rights among the campaign issues. She is concerned that too many people don’t connect the dots between abortion restrictions and the rise in maternal deaths. But the two are “inextricably tied,” she says.
“If we do nothing to proactively ensure that the women who are being forced into a broken maternal health care system and into motherhood before they’re ready are not being kept alive to raise their babies, there will be a surge in maternal deaths and we cannot stay on the sidelines and just wait for that to happen,” she says.
My WayMakers: My mom has been an exemplary model of Black womanhood. She’s gone through so much and she’s overcome a lot and she’s just one of the most joyful humans I know. She’s the better version of me. Having that kind of rock-solid support and as my foundation is really what gives me the wings to fly and the belief in myself and the possibility that I can make change happen. I would be remiss not to mention Harriette Cole, because in terms of career she has been the ultimate waymaker for me. She was my first boss at Ebony . . . I was a totally unknown entity that she took a bet on, and she opened the door for me and I have never looked back. She has groomed me, supported me. She is like the OG multihyphenate who built a career that started in magazines but that branched out in many different directions. I saw her do it first, and that let me know I could do it too. And so from the very beginning of my magazine career, I always knew that there was more. Then there is Ronald Singletary [my father-in-law], who has modeled healthy, healed, loving, nurturing Black manhood—all the good things. I’d never seen it in the media. I’d never seen it in my household (because my father is white . . . [a] different dynamic). I had never seen it out in the world.
“Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, this is an issue that we should be able to come together on and say, ‘Listen, whether you believe reproductive rights should be rolled back or not, shouldn’t we do our part to keep these mothers alive?’”
Though Welteroth did not anticipate her advocacy role, she welcomes it. “I was very focused on my career and felt like I had a very full plate,” she says. “I did not know how I was going to make room for motherhood, let alone a whole new mission in life. But it’s truly a divine orchestration that I feel incredibly grateful for.” She recalls her midwife telling her, “Babies bring blessings.” “She was absolutely right,” Welteroth says. “[Silver] has brought me an infinite, deep well of purpose that I didn’t have before . . . I’m so grateful.”
Working on BirthFund while expecting her second child–Welteroth is pregnant as she speaks with WayMaker Journal–has been demanding, “It’s been a struggle, but it’s been a beautiful one and one that put me in touch with exactly where the families that we are supporting are,” she acknowledges.
“Building this kind of a movement while pregnant will humble you and remind you, you have to practice what you preach.” (In a recent Washington Post “Ask Elaine” answer to a single mom wondering whether she should apply for a demanding job in her third trimester, Welteroth counseled, “Pace yourself,” adding, “I truly believe you can do it all. Just not all at the same time.”)
“In the process of becoming mothers, we become so much more.”
As someone who has learned to weave motherhood into an impactful and successful working life, Welteroth believes it’s important to celebrate both spheres. “In the process of becoming mothers, we become so much more,” she says, challenging the prevailing wisdom that motherhood makes you shrink.
“It’s like this martyrdom that’s associated with motherhood,” she says. “And that’s not the brand of motherhood I subscribe to. There are different ways of modeling this motherhood thing.” Having said that, while it’s not necessary to shrink, there may be times when “you do need to contract and take care of yourself. It’s OK to have quieter seasons.”
From her experience, Welteroth offers this to those starting out on their career path: be open. Have the mindset that “there’s going to be multiple chapters,” she advises. “We are forever evolving, and it only gets better and our purpose expands over time. And specifically for women, it’s important that we hear and see examples of women’s careers that have only continued to blossom and expand in the aftermath of becoming mothers.”
From an interview with Nia Batts
