Kama Mitchell was exhausted, but happy in the days after supporting a client through a lengthy birth process that she called “a huge adventure.”
It’s not all that different from the way she describes the work being done by Rootead, the nonprofit organization she co-founded in 2014. Mitchell serves as executive director of Rootead, which was built on a mission of birthing justice and body awareness. It includes programs in African roots and culture, youth empowerment, family enrichment and now birth work, a branch of the organization that aims to reduce the African-American infant mortality rate in Kalamazoo.
To address the issue, Rootead has formed a doula collective to serve an at-risk population of mothers, babies and families. The program is funded in part by a supportive grant from United Way of the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Region.
The process has been long and arduous, Mitchell says, but also fulfilling.
