It all started with a friendship. Tonya Dumas and Meghan Nowland met at Tonya’s antique store in 2019. They shared a love of antiques, vintage clothing, thrifting, Harriet Tubman, Walnut Hills, and health equity. In 2020 they formed the Safer Birth Foundation. For the first two years Meghan was overworking from the COVID-19 home birth boom and project managing for the birth center construction. At the end of 2022 Tonya and Meghan had the capacity to work on the foundation. Their main idea for the foundation was that midwives and doulas are so busy providing essential maternity care most don’t have the capacity to build nonprofit support around their mission. The board seeks diverse candidates including C-suite executives, parents with lived experience, and community members working in the maternal health space.

• In 2023 the foundation received the City of Cincinnati Boots on the Ground grant, Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation support to build a Community Cut Flower Garden, and Mountain Rose Herbs grant to build a Maternal Herb Support Garden. The board also grew that year adding Mac McCullough, Laura Hamady, and India Stringer and was awarded a grant through Christ Church Cathedral.

• In 2024 Tigist Ejeta, CPM, joined the board. We won the American Association of Birth Centers Foundation grant to do a pilot study researching chiropractic care and midwifery. We participated in the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training program through the University of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and finished our Community Cut Flower Garden. We also added to our board Steven Hall, former owner of two birth centers and past board member of the American Association of Birth Centers. We launched our Bellyful program with a partnership from Fresh RX and the Community Farm Alliance of Kentucky.

• In 2025 we added farmer Annie Woods to our board, expanded and continued our Bellyful program, and received grants from BI3 Foundation, Franklin County Community Foundation, and NCRC Field Empowerment Fund, launching our educational programming with woman’s wellness workshops. We finished building our Maternal Herb Support Garden. At the end of 2025 we were given Linda Smith’s 90 Hour Lactation Examination Preparatory Course. We partnered with Herbalists Without Borders to open a Cincinnati chapter of Herbalists Without Borders to receive seed grants, herbal wellness kits, and prenatal supplements for maternal wellness.

• In 2026 Dr Corinn Taylor and Christian Lumpkin joined our board, we started our Safe Birth For Everyone Podcast, and are working to develop the 90 Hour Lactation Examination Prep Course into an online format so midwives, student midwives, and birth workers can receive the training to become International Board Certified Lactation Consultants. We raised over $1000 at our Legacy of Life Tea. Our Co-Founder Meghan Nowland was featured in NBC news in an article highlighting the challenges midwives face integrating into the healthcare system. In March we testified in Columbus in support of HB 537 to license Certified Professional Midwives and remove barriers to freestanding birth centers in Ohio. We streamlined our website and programming. Our focus this year is completing our Rest and Reflection Garden, activating our outdoor programming space, and to build our educational services. Our Bellyful program is fully funded and enrolled for the season!