Black Maternal Health Week 2026, observed April 11-17, marks a decade since the Black Mamas Matter Alliance launched this annual call to action. This year’s theme, “Rooted in Justice and Joy,” honors the advocates who have pushed Black maternal health into the national conversation while acknowledging the crisis that persists. In Missouri, that crisis is acute: the state ranks 44th in the nation for maternal health outcomes, and Black women face a pregnancy-related mortality ratio of 72 deaths per 100,000 live births, nearly three times the rate for white women, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. More than 70% of those deaths were deemed preventable.
Altruism, Inc. is one of the organizations working to change that number. Founded by Tonia Wright in 2021, a Black woman whose career in health care marketing and advocacy spans nearly two decades, Altruism is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit rooted in rural Lafayette County, Missouri, the birthplace of its first pregnancy center in 2023. What began as a response to the lack of maternal health resources in one of Missouri’s most underserved rural communities has grown into a two-location model, with The Maternal and Infant Health (MaIH) Center’s original home in Lexington serving rural Lafayette County, and a second location opened in 2025 inside Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center’s Cabot campus in Kansas City. The partnership co-locates Altruism’s doulas alongside Sam Rodgers’ obstetric care, pediatrics, WIC, dental, and behavioral health, so that a birthing person walks through one door and has access to a full continuum of support.
The Maternal and Infant Health (MaIH) Center in Lexington, Missouri.
Across both locations, The MaIH Center connects women and birthing people who need it the most with doula, community health worker, and midwifery services. Families have access to doula support from prenatal through at least one year postpartum, midwifery referrals, prenatal and postpartum education, mental health counseling, a free diaper bank through a partnership with HappyBottoms, baby clothing and car seats, and fresh produce through Altruism’s own Food as Medicine (FaM) Program, launched earlier this year. Since opening, The MaIH Center has provided doula support and outreach services to more than 200 families and distributed more than 38,000 diapers.
“We are a small nonprofit, but our impact is great,” Wright said. “Anytime you can connect a pregnant woman or birthing person with support and resources to ease a burden, buffer the physical and emotional challenges of carrying a new life, or lessen the load of the day-to-day pressures to make ends meet, it offers a huge lift at a time when it’s most needed. To be given an opportunity to do this work and serve another woman, and her family, in this way is hard to quantify in words.”
The MaIH Center at Sam Rodgers doula room.
Doulas are the cornerstone of Altruism’s model, and their roots run deep. Black birth workers once delivered half of the babies in the United States, serving as healers and trusted guides in their communities. By 1935, they had been systematically pushed out of practice as policies favored physician-led hospital births.
Today, Altruism’s doulas carry that tradition forward. They are the consistent presence throughout a client’s pregnancy, building trust over months, helping families create birth plans, connecting them to food assistance and housing resources, and advocating for their needs during labor and delivery. In the postpartum period, when the risk of maternal death remains high, Altruism’s doulas stay with clients, supporting them through challenges like postpartum depression, breastfeeding, and navigating care for a newborn. For Black birthing people, who are more likely to have their concerns dismissed in clinical settings, that sustained relationship can be the difference between being heard and being overlooked.
“The vast majority of our clients are covered through Medicaid,” Wright said. “The work of a doula not only levels the playing field but also elevates the game. Women whose births are covered through Medicaid have a seven times higher pregnancy-associated mortality rate than women with private insurance. Doulas overwhelmingly improve outcomes for pregnant women and birthing people—from reduced C-sections, mortality rates, and preterm births to increased rates of breastfeeding and overall satisfaction with the birthing experience, which delivers something very coveted: birth joy. This is especially true for Black women.”
A study published through the National Institutes of Health reinforces what Altruism sees in practice. Among 722 pairs of Medicaid enrollees, those with doula support were 46% more likely to attend a postpartum visit, had 47% fewer cesarean deliveries, and experienced 29% fewer preterm births.
Missouri and Kansas both began covering doula services through Medicaid in 2024, removing one of the largest barriers to access. The MaIH Center also provides doula services free of charge for clients without insurance, ensuring no one is turned away.
Altruism, Inc. represents what it looks like when an organization is designed from the start to meet birthing people where they are, in rural communities and urban neighborhoods alike, with care that addresses the whole person. Not operating in a vacuum, it also showcases what can be accomplished through partnerships and collaborations to move birth equity forward. “Our partners are integral to the work we do,” Wright said. “Working with health systems, FQHCs, philanthropic, and community-based organizations has been a crucial aspect of our growth and success since we kicked off The MaIH Project in 2022. And this means we are able to do more for the clients we serve at a time when they are most vulnerable.”
As Black Maternal Health Week enters its second decade, the work of organizations like Altruism is not just needed. It is essential.
For more information or to support Altruism’s mission, visit altruism-inc.org.
