aboutus
The Chicago Birthworks Collective was launched in 2018 by Toni and Tayo, a mom and daughter doula duo as the first collective of birthworkers, healers, and wellness practictioners uniquely serving Black birthing families across Chicago! The collective comprises of more than a dozen birth workers who are committed to centering Black mamas and birthing people in their own reproductive experiences through radical attention, culturally affirming and centered education and a village centered model of care.
Our mission is simple: to connect our families to the support they deserve and desire surrounding their most enjoyable, and empowered birth and postpartum experience.
I prayed to have twins, not knowing what that meant, but through that experience my eyes were opened. As a woman, I feel so blessed beyonds words to have the ability to carry life. Each of my birthing experiences have revealed to me the true conception of how fragile yet powerful pregnancy, and birth truly are.
An SMC Full Circle Doula, Licensed Hair Stylist, Trained Massage Specialist, Baker, Mama Toni is the woman who does it all. Born on the southside of Chicago and raised in Southern california, Mama Toni has developed a unique love for building community where she finds herself. She is mother to four, identical twins, one daughter, and one son, grandmother to two boys and two girls and a guiding force and loving light to all of them. Toni’s work in building community around birthing women and expecting families began long before her formal training in the field, but as she stood by the side of her 6 sisters in the births of over 15 nieces and nephews. Toni has been drawn to and committed to motherhood and to women at whatever stage of the journey they find themselves in.
If I wasn't born to be a mama, I don't know what I else I could've been sent down here for. I love every part of being able to call myself a mother.
Tayo was born in Long Beach, Ca and raised partially in Chicago on the south side. She graduated from Howard University with a degree in Psychology in 2015. That same year she gave birth to her first child with her mother by her side and knew then that motherhood was her favorite hood. In 2016, she became a WIC trained Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and in 2017 trained as an SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion.
Toni Taylor
Tayo Mbande
The Administrative Team
Akeva
I prayed to have twins, not knowing what that meant, but through that experience my eyes were opened. As a woman, I feel so blessed beyonds words to have the ability to carry life. Each of my birthing experiences have revealed to me the true conception of how fragile yet powerful pregnancy, and birth truly are.
An SMC Full Circle Doula, Licensed Hair Stylist, Trained Massage Specialist, Baker, Mama Toni is the woman who does it all. Born on the southside of Chicago and raised in Southern california, Mama Toni has developed a unique love for building community where she finds herself. She is mother to four, identical twins, one daughter, and one son, grandmother to two boys and two girls and a guiding force and loving light to all of them. Toni’s work in building community around birthing women and expecting families began long before her formal training in the field, but as she stood by the side of her 6 sisters in the births of over 15 nieces and nephews. Toni has been drawn to and committed to motherhood and to women at whatever stage of the journey they find themselves in.
If I wasn't born to be a mama, I don't know what I else I could've been sent down here for. I love every part of being able to call myself a mother.
Tayo was born in Long Beach, Ca and raised partially in Chicago on the south side. She graduated from Howard University with a degree in Psychology in 2015. That same year she gave birth to her first child with her mother by her side and knew then that motherhood was her favorite hood. In 2016, she became a WIC trained Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and in 2017 trained as an SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion.
Toni Taylor
Tayo Mbande
The Administrative Team
Akeva
I prayed to have twins, not knowing what that meant, but through that experience my eyes were opened. As a woman, I feel so blessed beyonds words to have the ability to carry life. Each of my birthing experiences have revealed to me the true conception of how fragile yet powerful pregnancy, and birth truly are.
An SMC Full Circle Doula, Licensed Hair Stylist, Trained Massage Specialist, Baker, Mama Toni is the woman who does it all. Born on the southside of Chicago and raised in Southern california, Mama Toni has developed a unique love for building community where she finds herself. She is mother to four, identical twins, one daughter, and one son, grandmother to two boys and two girls and a guiding force and loving light to all of them. Toni’s work in building community around birthing women and expecting families began long before her formal training in the field, but as she stood by the side of her 6 sisters in the births of over 15 nieces and nephews. Toni has been drawn to and committed to motherhood and to women at whatever stage of the journey they find themselves in.
If I wasn't born to be a mama, I don't know what I else I could've been sent down here for. I love every part of being able to call myself a mother.
Tayo was born in Long Beach, Ca and raised partially in Chicago on the south side. She graduated from Howard University with a degree in Psychology in 2015. That same year she gave birth to her first child with her mother by her side and knew then that motherhood was her favorite hood. In 2016, she became a WIC trained Breastfeeding Peer Counselor and in 2017 trained as an SMC Full Circle Doula Birth Companion.
Toni Taylor
Tayo Mbande
The Administrative Team
Akeva G.
Kayla K.
Jessica O.
Our Founders
Program Manager
Family Care Coordinator
Community Engagement Coordinator