About Rural Oklahoma Birth & Wellness Initiative
Our Story.
About the Rural Oklahoma Birth & Wellness Initiative
We believe maternal health improves when communities, birth workers, healthcare providers, and local organizations work together in relationship rather than isolation. Our work is guided by Indigenous knowledge and responsibility to community, grounded in lived experience, and rooted in the understanding that lasting change grows from within the communities themselves.
ROBWI connects families, providers, and community partners while building a strong rural perinatal workforce and strengthening the networks of support that surround pregnancy, birth, and early parenting.
Mission & History
The Rural Oklahoma Birth & Wellness Initiative was created to strengthen the systems of care that surround pregnancy, birth, and early parenting across rural Oklahoma.
Our work grows from the communities we serve. ROBWI is built by doulas, educators, nurses, mental health professionals, nonprofit leaders, and parents who live in rural Oklahoma and understand the realities families face when navigating pregnancy and postpartum in communities with limited access to care.
We have seen firsthand how families are often required to move between providers, organizations, and support services that are not well connected. At the same time, we have witnessed the strength already present in rural communities: families caring for one another, dedicated providers working across long distances, and local organizations stepping in to support parents wherever they can.
ROBWI exists to bring these strengths together.
Rather than creating parallel systems, our work focuses on strengthening what already exists while addressing the gaps families and providers identify themselves. We build relationships between birth workers, healthcare providers, community organizations, and families so support systems become more connected, coordinated, and responsive.
At the heart of our work is the belief that sustainable change does not come from outside intervention. It comes from communities themselves.
By growing the rural perinatal workforce, strengthening collaboration between providers and community partners, and centering lived experience in program design, ROBWI works to build systems of care that support families not only during pregnancy and birth, but throughout the early years of parenting.
The Gaps We Address
Across rural Oklahoma, families often navigate pregnancy, birth, and early parenting within systems that are difficult to access and rarely well connected.
Long travel distances, provider shortages, hospital closures, and transportation barriers can make even routine care difficult to obtain. Many families struggle to access postpartum support, lactation care, mental health services, and culturally aligned birth support close to home.
At the same time, providers and community organizations are often working hard to support families within systems that do not easily connect. Services may exist across a region, but without coordination families can move between providers, community programs, and support services without clear pathways or continuity of care.
Workforce shortages add another layer of challenge. Rural communities need more trained doulas, lactation professionals, mental health providers, and community-based perinatal supports, particularly those able to serve Medicaid families and families facing multiple barriers.
ROBWI works to address these challenges by strengthening relationships between families, providers, and community organizations while building a locally rooted perinatal workforce that can support families across pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenting.
Rather than replacing what already exists in rural communities, our work focuses on connecting, strengthening, and expanding the networks of care that families and providers are already building together.
Our Vision.
We envision rural Oklahoma communities where families are supported by strong, connected systems of care built from within the community itself.
In this vision, pregnancy, birth, and early parenting are supported by networks of people who know their communities and are trusted within them. Families are connected to doulas, healthcare providers, mental health professionals, lactation support, educators, and community organizations that work together rather than in isolation.
Rural communities have a sustainable, locally rooted perinatal workforce. Community-based doulas, providers, educators, and organizations collaborate to ensure families experience continuity of care across pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and the early years of parenting.
Existing community resources are strengthened and expanded, and remaining gaps in care are addressed through coordinated programs, workforce development, and community-based support.
In the communities we envision:
• Families can access perinatal support regardless of geography or income
• Community-based doulas are trained, mentored, contracted, and supported long term
• Providers and community organizations work together with shared understanding and trust
• Families experience continuity of care across pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenting
• Systems remain responsive to lived experience and the realities of rural life
Our vision is not a single program or service. It is a connected ecosystem of care where community leadership, workforce development, clinical collaboration, and direct support work together to strengthen rural families for generations.
Our Approach.
A Model Built on Relationship
We believe strong communities create strong outcomes.
Our work is rooted in relationship, lived experience, and trust. We serve counties where members of our team already live, work, and remain deeply connected. We do not enter communities as outsiders. We show up in the places we come from, alongside the people who are already part of the community fabric.
Community voices guide our work. Our role is to listen first, strengthen what already exists, and help address gaps identified by families, providers, and local partners themselves.
Programs are not imposed. They grow through relationship, feedback, and shared responsibility.
Strengthening What Exists
ROBWI intentionally partners with existing providers, organizations, and grassroots efforts already serving families.
Our goal is not to duplicate services or replace the work already being done. Instead, we focus on strengthening connections between systems, improving coordination, and building capacity where communities identify additional support is needed.
Through listening sessions, focus groups, evaluations, and ongoing relationship-building, communities help shape the programs, trainings, and initiatives we develop.
Everything we build is designed to integrate into the systems already supporting families.
How We Work with Communities
Listening First
Every community is different. We begin by listening to families, providers, and community members about how pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenting are experienced locally.
These conversations shape every program, event, and training we offer.
Connecting Providers and Community Supports
ROBWI brings together providers, organizations, and community leaders who are working toward shared goals.
These gatherings help reduce silos, strengthen referral pathways, and build coordinated networks of support for families.
Community Resource Fairs and Baby Showers
We host county-wide perinatal resource fairs and community baby showers that connect families with education, programs, and tangible support in welcoming, trauma-responsive environments.
These events emphasize dignity, choice, and connection. Families are able to explore resources, meet providers, and build relationships with community-based supports.
For many families and providers, these gatherings also serve as an introduction to community-based doula care and the role doulas play in supporting families throughout pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.
Community-Based Doula Training and Workforce Development
Our perinatal workforce is grown locally, not brought in from outside communities.
ROBWI recruits and trains doulas from the communities they will serve, ensuring care remains culturally responsive, trusted, and sustainable. Training is followed by structured mentorship and ongoing support.
Many of our mentors, trainers, and facilitators come directly from our training cohorts, creating a continuous pipeline of community-rooted leadership.
Through mentorship, doulas deepen their relationships with providers, support community events, and strengthen local networks of care.
Supporting Providers and Prenatal Care
ROBWI collaborates with providers and subject-matter experts to develop trainings that strengthen support for families beyond clinical care.
These trainings focus on understanding social and structural barriers to maternal health, strengthening referral pathways to community-based supports, and improving collaboration between clinical providers and doulas.
Our goal is to strengthen alignment between clinical systems and community-based care.
Growing Leadership From Within Communities
Many of our doulas are also nurses, social workers, mental health professionals, nonprofit leaders, and individuals with lived experience.
They bring this knowledge back into the systems they are already part of, helping strengthen collaboration between clinical care, community support, and public health systems.
ROBWI intentionally supports mentor and trainer development within our own training cohorts, ensuring leadership remains local, relational, and grounded in community values.
Organizational Development and Nonprofit Incubation
ROBWI also supports the development of community-based organizations that address unmet local needs.
When appropriate, emerging initiatives may operate under ROBWI’s nonprofit umbrella during their early development. This allows programs to begin serving families without the barriers of immediate nonprofit formation while receiving mentorship, infrastructure support, and operational guidance.
Communities retain leadership and direction while building sustainable local solutions.
Rural Access Through Satellite Events
To reach families in the most rural areas, ROBWI hosts smaller Baby Education Expo events throughout each county.
These satellite events bring education, resources, and tangible support directly into communities where transportation and access barriers may otherwise limit participation.
A Model Built to Last
Everything we do is centered on relationship, collaboration, and sustainability.
By strengthening existing supports, growing leadership from within communities, and connecting providers with community-based resources, ROBWI helps build systems of care that continue supporting families long after individual programs or events end.
This is how we show up in rural Oklahoma communities.
What We Build Together.
We believe lasting change happens when communities build systems together.
The Rural Oklahoma Birth & Wellness Initiative does not work in isolation. Everything we do is built in partnership with families, doulas, healthcare providers, organizations, and community leaders who are already showing up for rural Oklahoma.
Together, we strengthen coordinated systems of care that connect what already exists, expand those supports, and intentionally fill gaps through community-based solutions, workforce development, and direct care.
We Build Connection
We connect families to the resources and supports already present in their communities while strengthening relationships between providers, organizations, and community-based care.
By reducing silos and improving coordination, families experience clearer pathways to support and greater continuity of care across pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and early parenting.
We Build Workforce
We build a sustainable, locally rooted perinatal workforce by training, mentoring, and contracting community-based doulas from the communities they serve.
Workforce development does not end with training. It includes mentorship, leadership development, and ongoing support so doulas remain engaged, trusted, and integrated within local systems of care.
We Build Capacity
We partner with existing organizations, providers, and grassroots efforts to strengthen capacity rather than replace services.
Through collaboration, education, and shared planning, communities gain tools, knowledge, and leadership that remain in place long after individual programs or events conclude.
We Build Access
When gaps in care exist, we work with communities to help fill them through direct support, doula services, community education, and outreach.
From county-wide resource fairs to smaller satellite education events, we bring care, information, and tangible support directly to families who face barriers due to geography, transportation, or limited system access.
We Build Leadership
Leadership grows from within the communities we serve.
Many of our doulas and partners are also nurses, mental health professionals, nonprofit leaders, and community advocates. We support leadership development within our programs so those closest to the work continue shaping solutions, training others, and guiding systems change.
We Build Systems That Last
Together, we are building more than programs. We are building infrastructure.
By centering community voice, strengthening existing supports, developing workforce from within, and aligning systems around shared goals, we help create perinatal support networks that are resilient, responsive, and sustainable.
This work belongs to the community.
We are honored to build it together.
