FOX29 2023
WHYY 2020
PBS Community Corner 2019
PBS Coverage
Saleemah McNeil’s birthing experience was nothing like what she had imagined. In fact, what unfolded at the hospital was more akin to a horror story. But because Saleemah and her son were both alive, health care professionals deemed it a success. However, the standard of care needs to shift beyond just survival so that Black birthing people can feel safe and supported when bringing their babies earthside.
Birthright Podcast
Birthright live! The restoration episode
In this first Restoration episode of season 2, reproductive psychotherapist and CEO of Oshun Family Healing, Saleemah McNeil, and host Kimberly Seals Allers gather at SaksWorks Flagship in NYC to hold space for Black women who’ve experienced medical-related trauma.
2022
Bridging Philly Podcast
Black Maternal Health Week: Maternal Equity and the Impacts Doulas have on Pregnant Women.
According to a 2020 report from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee, half of the city’s 26 pregnancy-related deaths could have been prevented.
2022
‘We Know What the Research Says:’ Transforming Peripartum Care for Black Birthing People
Three Black women researchers are supporting and fortifying the networks of diverse birthing support needed to address health inequities for Black birthing people.
‘We Are the Lifeline’, One Center’s Fight For Black Maternal Health” Saleemah J. McNeil stands for a portrait inside the anticipated Oshun Family Center in Kensington on August 21. The center is expected to open in 2026 or 2027, according to McNeil. The center had secured $1.2 million to begin construction, but funding cuts left only $500,000. McNeil now faces the challenge of raising the difference through foundations and donors.
“That experience felt so jarring and so far from what I had anticipated or wanted for my birth story, and that made it very challenging in the postpartum because I felt like I was presented with a baby versus like having my son,” she explained.”
One of the organization’s proudest milestones came with the acquisition of a 7,500-square-foot property in Kensington, a permanent home that will become Philadelphia’s first fully integrated, Black-led Maternal Wellness Center.
Today, state Rep. Jose Giral, D-Phila., announced $500,000 in state funding to create a maternal health center at 3213 Frankford Ave. in the city’s Port Richmond neighborhood. The funds were granted to the Oshun Family Center, which provides culturally aligned and holistic supportive care for mental health, maternal health and fertility issues.
