MAMAS AT THE BORDER
The status quo is failing mothers. 60% of maternal deaths happen in the postpartum period — and for Black, Latina, and immigrant mothers, this risk is higher due to systemic racism and less access to culturally conscious care.
Our programs bring people together to build a wheel of care within a supportive community that responds to the health, education, social and emotional, material, and financial needs of mothers and birthing people.
Our lead program, Mamas at the Border, serves refugee, migrant, and asylum-seeking mothers and parents in Tijuana, Mexico by providing resources for quality, culturally appropriate healthcare, empowering knowledge, and essential material items through community-based support systems.
We foster belonging and connection, recognizing that peer support is invaluable — especially for the asylum-seeking families we serve in postpartum — and equally that cooperation between their providers and advocates is essential.
In the first year of operation, Mamas at the Border supported and advocated for 85 mothers and 174 children. Fifteen mothers were pregnant while in our program and of those 17 were single parents, and 10 were teenagers.
Mothers and parents gather in the Mama2Mama Community Room at the Ciudad de Dios refugee shelter to share a safe, supportive space, and receive essential care items like diapers and formula. We offer parenting education and mental health support, and ensure that pregnant and fourth trimester mothers are scheduling and attending critical medical appointments.
We provide both group and individual therapy weekly sessions in an adjoining space provided by our partner Nest Global. Through this care, mothers and families are empowered to navigate their postpartum experiences in the most uncertain circumstances.
“I arrived [in Tijuana] destroyed and very weak. Knowing that I was alone and having left my family made me very fragile. But now, after 10 months, I have changed entirely. I’m a mature person knowing that I have myself and that I alone am my own family.” – Ana, October 2024
Importantly, we partner with values-aligned organizations that provide care and support to our Mamas at the Border program participants:
- Parteria y Medicinas Ancestrales is a Mexican ancestral midwifery organization with whom we partner to operate a mobile health clinic. This compact clinic visits the 33 migrant shelters – large and small – along the U.S./Mexico border. The clinic provides crucial postpartum and prenatal check ups, well-baby visits for children and infants, women’s health screenings, sexual and domestic violence care, and education on legal rights and maternal health. This work is vital to expanding our impact and ensuring all refugee, migrant and asylum-seeking mothers at the U.S./Mexico border have access to culturally appropriate and equitable healthcare during pregnancy and postpartum.
- Al Otro Lado is a legal aid organization providing holistic legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and other migrants in the US and Tijuana through a multidisciplinary, client-centered, harm reduction-based practice. We supply their downtown Tijuana clinic with hygiene kits, formula and baby carriers, and our Mamas at the Border mothers participate in their Mama Empoderada project, which focuses on mental health, parenting education and strengthening social networks.
- Refugee Health Alliance provides migrants and refugees along the U.S./Mexico Border with inclusive and ethical medical care. We provide their Tijuana clinic with postpartum care items and hygiene kits, and partner with their midwifery team to ensure Mamas at the Border pregnant and recently postpartum women receive the critical perinatal care they need.
- Jewish Family Service of San Diego, a part of the The San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN), provides robust immigration legal services in addition to humanitarian and respite shelter for asylum seekers who have been released into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security. We provide toys and hygiene kits for the families at their migrant shelter, and collaborate to ensure Mamas at the Border families receive their services, such as medical and legal support in San Diego.
