A divine connection with a midwife brought Kara Simpson to Community of Hope’s (COH) Family Health and Birth Center. Kara is originally from Gastonia, NC, but relocated to DC as her first travel assignment as a labor and delivery nurse. As Kara worked towards her long-term goal of becoming a midwife, she also became the mentee of one of COH’s midwives, Tracie. “She really provided me with sisterhood and friendship. She’s been a sounding board and always gave good advice when I was applying for schools.”

Anisa was in and out of the foster care system growing up. In her home state of North Carolina, she was constantly moving from home to home. Now a mom of four young children, she had little confidence that she could provide anything different for her children, as she has always known a transient life. When she was introduced to Community of Hope, that changed. 

Myla Watley is 36 weeks pregnant and glowing. Though she has had a relatively easy pregnancy, she - like most first time mothers - is nervous about the unknown and has many questions about what is ahead. She met her husband while finishing her degree and moved back to the DC area to be closer to her parents for when they started their family. "We weren’t necessarily planning to get pregnant, but we weren’t not either. It didn’t take very long – 4 months. When I found out, I immediately Googled Black OBs because of the Black maternal mortality rate and other things you hear.”