Championing safe, joyful births for Black women.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project™ (DSMAP) is a national initiative transforming Black maternal health through healing, advocacy, and culturally grounded community action.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project (DSMAP) brings families, community leaders, and clinicians together to make pregnancy and the weeks after birth safer and more supported. We connect evidence with lived experience through healing work, advocacy, and culturally grounded action.
Across the United States, too many Black women face preventable complications during pregnancy and after birth — regardless of income or education. The cause isn’t biology or behavior. It’s whether care listens early, responds with respect, and follows through.
We honor Dr. Shalon by ensuring what should have been there for her—and must be there for every Black woman: attentive care, dignity, and a sacred birth experience.
What We DO
Rooted in the SHALON Method™
All of our work at Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project is grounded in the SHALON Method™—a community-centered framework that challenges systems to see Black women as whole people.
We all have bias. That is not an indictment; it is part of being human. SHALON Blueprint™ is a training program that turns awareness into action. Using real cases, the Mirror Exercise, and coached application, teams learn to see the person first, spot risk sooner, and respond with dignity and skill. The result is safer care, stronger trust, and habits that hold under pressure.
You’ve carried a loss no one should. In GRAMMS™, you don’t have to carry it alone. This rolling-enrollment circle is for women who have lost a daughter, sister, partner, or loved one to pregnancy-related complications.
GRAMMS™ isn’t therapy; it’s consistent, compassionate community with clear pathways to resources if you want them.
We create a dignified, culturally grounded space for remembrance, connection, and steady support.
(GRAMMS™ originates from Grandmothers Rallying Against Maternal Mortality & Morbidity Sisterhood™ and welcomes all women who share this loss.)
CommuniTEA 4 Change™
An interdisciplinary convening where faith leaders, clinicians, doulas, public health, educators, policy shapers, and community advocates align evidence with lived experience and commit to near-term action. Co-designed with local partners to produce a city-specific resource map and warm handoffs, then equip local leads to sustain momentum.
How the Health System Often Fails Black Mothers
Black mothers in the U.S. are too often dismissed, unheard, or misdiagnosed—even when they advocate for themselves. Research shows that Black women are more likely to have their pain underestimated, their symptoms ignored, and their care delayed.
These are not isolated incidents. They are the outcomes of systemic bias, structural racism, and a healthcare system that lacks culturally responsive care.
The consequences are deadly: preventable complications, trauma, and maternal deaths that should never happen.
The system isn’t failing Black mothers—it was never designed to protect them.
Grief is our witness. Action is our answer.
Dr. Shalon—and so many other women—should still be here. Her death was preventable, the result of a system that failed to listen. Dr. Shalon's Maternal Action Project
Four in five pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. These are not statistics to accept. They are a mandate. CDC
Their stories fuel our commitment to justice in Black maternal health. We teach, empower, and advocate, building what Dr. Shalon was denied and what every Black woman deserves: attentive care, dignity, and safety.
Protecting Black women means reimagining care from the ground up.
Be part of the change.
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