Okunsola M. Amadou

Midwife | Mami Wata Priestess | Museum Founder | Educator & Cultural Preservationist

Reclaiming, Preserving & Elevating the Sacred Art of Precolonial & Prehistoric Midwifery

Brittany L. Conteh, professionally known as Mami Wata Priestess Okunsola M. Amadou, is a pioneering midwife, museum founder, educator, and preservationist dedicated to redefining the origins of ancient precolonial and prehistoric midwifery, ensuring its rightful place in the cultural, maternal health and historical record.

After leading a midwifery clinic for over a decade and practicing as a Certified Professional Midwife, Okunsola has formally retired from westernized midwifery, and is has transitioned from clinical practice to full-time cultural preservation, focusing on the documentation, protection, and advancement of ancient midwifery traditions globally.

As the Founder of the African Indigenous Midwifery Museum (AIMM) and the African Indigenous Midwifery Library & Research Institute (AIM LRI), Okunsola’s work is deeply rooted in cultural research, ancestral reclamation, and the historical preservation of ancient midwifery, with a focus on ancient midwives in sea communities, water dieties that govern childbirth, midwifery and motherhood, as well as precolonial & prehistoric midwifery traditions thorughout the many coastal communities across the world. Her mission is to unearth and archive the hidden stories, rituals, and practices of ancient midwifery across global lineages, ensuring they are protected as an intangible cultural heritage for generations to come.

A Legacy of Leadership: Birthwork Advocacy and The Advancement of Black Maternal Health

As the Founder & CEO Emeritus of The Historic Jamaa Birth Village Cultural Heritage Center, Okunsola led groundbreaking efforts to transform Black Maternal Health in Missouri and beyond. Her achievements include:

✔ Opening Missouri’s first Black-led midwifery clinic on Juneteenth 2020, after training with traditional midwives and fetish priestesses in Ghana (2013).
✔ Becoming the First Black Certified Professional Midwife & First Black Registered CPM Preceptor in Missouri in 2019 & 2023.
✔ Certifying over 460 Black doulas, significantly closing the Black doula disparity gap in the state.
✔ Earning 24 awards for her contributions to Black Maternal Health.
✔ Consulting hospitals, policymakers, and international organizations on equitable maternal care policies.
✔ Receiving ten state/local proclamations, eight resolutions-including a Congressional Resolution for her work in birth justice.

Her leadership has not only expanded access to midwifery and doula services, but also challenged systemic inequities in maternal care, ensuring culturally centered and community-driven solutions.

The Midwifery Folklorist™: Advancing Cultural Preservation of Ancient Forms of Midwifery

Through her initiative The Midwifery Folklorist™, Okunsola is forging a new field of study, one that centers Folk Midwifery™ as a living, sacred tradition separate from folk medicine, through public offerings for educational awareness, and private membership offerings to preserve and honor sacred Folk Midwife™ and Birth Priestess™ lineages.

✔ Preserving Rituals & Ceremonies → Documenting the spiritual and cultural traditions of birthwork.
✔ Oral History Collection & Archiving → Recording the untold stories of ancient midwifery globally.
✔ Research & Museum Integration → Establishing Folk Midwifery™ within academic and historical institutions.
✔ Education & Public Speaking → Sharing knowledge through books, lectures, and storytelling.

In Autumn 2024, Okunsola launched a two-year independent field study to explore the untold stories of Folk Midwives, beginning in New Orleans, onwards towards the Gullah Geechee corridor and West Africa-uncovering deep ancestral wisdom across regions and cultures.

Her newly released book, “The Black Midwife Oracle™” and accompanying oracle deck is the first published collection-written by a Black Midwife-documenting the sacred history, ceremonies, and lived experiences of Black ancestral midwives across the diaspora.

Birthwork as a Spiritual Path: Priestess, Seer & Healer

Okunsola’s work is deeply spiritual, ancestral, and guided by divine purpose. As an initiated Vodun-Mami Wata Priestess, and initiate of Afa she embodies the sacred intersection of spiritual & ancestral birthwork, cultural preservation, and divine feminine wisdom.

✔ Her practice as a Birth Priestess™ integrates ancient African birth rites, ancestral healing, throguh African cosmological birthwork-ensuring birth remains a ceremonial passage, not a medical event.
✔ As a descendant of Fulani & Yoruba lineages, she carries the sacred responsibility of reclaiming African birth traditions and ensuring they are safeguarded against erasure.

Through her teachings, storytelling, and advocacy, she empowers cultural & spiritual midwives and future Birth Priestesses™ to reclaim their sacred calling, ensuring that birth remains autonomous, protected, spiritual, and deeply rooted in ancestral traditions.