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With much support from Susan Taylor and Essence Magazine, the concept of The Birthing Project spread across the country... Within five years, it was known as Birthing Project USA: The Underground Railroad for New Life.

By June 2004, 10,000 babies had been welcomed into 75 Birthing Projects.

The average Birthing Project baby weighs 7 ½ pounds, one pound more than the average African American baby.

Why? Birthing Project SisterFriends provide social support which helps to reduce stress which helps mothers stay pregnant to full 40 weeks gestation.

From research conducted by San Francisco University and University of California at Los Angeles.

The Birthing Project has received national recognition, including The National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Community Service Award, the Excellence in HealthCare Award and California Department of Health Hero in Health Care Award.

T he Birthing Project Story

(pictured) First Birthing Project

Once upon a time, in a place called Sacramento, a baby boy was born. His name was DeAndre and although he only lived ten days, he quietly became the symbol of a national movement which has changed the course of history.

As a public health program advisor with the California State Department of Health Services, Kathryn Hall was well aware of the big picture of health care when she began the Birthing Project in 1988. Her intention was to demonstrate to the State that it was more cost effective to pay for prenatal care and support services than to pay for sick babies. Her plan was to ask 9 other women to provide one on one friendship, education and practical support to pregnant teens and women as a way of modeling that this was a cost effective way of decreasing the disparate Infant Mortality and Morbidity in the African American community.

All public health professionals use the term “Infant Mortality” almost on a daily basis. It was not until Ms. Hall held a 10 day old baby boy, named DeAndre, shortly after his life slipped away, that she internalized the meaning of those words as “counting dead babies”.

DeAndre’s short life became the impetus for The Birthing Project to become both a model for improving birth outcomes and a national movement to educate and invite community members to be involved.