You Were Always Meant to Be Here

Black Maternal Health Week · Community · Belonging

A letter to every mother who has ever felt unseen, unheard, or turned away, and to everyone who has ever loved one.

CIRCLE OF LUNA COLLECTIVE  ·  BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH WEEK 2026

There is a moment every mother carries somewhere deep. You are in the middle of something sacred, something terrifying, something that will change you forever, and you look around and realize: no one here sees me. No one here has asked.

That moment is not a small thing. It lives in the body. It shapes how you breathe, how you ask questions, how much you say, and how much you hold back. Hospitals, waiting rooms, and clinics are meant to provide space for safety, protection, and healing, but have resulted in unimaginable loss.

Black Maternal Health Week, observed April 11 through 17, was born from that truth. Founded by Black Mamas Matter Alliance, it exists to lift the voices that systems too often silence and to name, plainly, what is happening to mothers across this country during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum season.

Black women in the United States face a maternal mortality rate three to four times higher than that of white women, a disparity rooted not only in income, education, or access, but also in how their voices, concerns, and experiences are valued and addressed.

We share it because silence is one of the things that has kept this crisis alive, and because knowing is the first form of protection.

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What This Space Is For

Circle of Luna Collective exists because the gap between what mothers need and what they actually receive is real, and because community is one of the most powerful medicines we have.

We are rooted in Hoke, Harnett, and Cumberland counties. We know what it means to drive forty minutes for a prenatal appointment. We know what it means when the nearest hospital’s labor and delivery unit has closed. We know the specific exhaustion of being the only one in the room explaining your own pain.

And we know something else: we know what it looks like when a mother is surrounded. When she is held. When someone who has walked the road before her sits beside her and says, I see you. I have been there. You do not have to figure this out alone.

That is what we are building, not just a program, not just a resource list, but a living circle where every mother belongs.

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For Everyone Who Comes to This Space

If you are a Black mother, a brown mother, a mother who has been dismissed or doubted or delayed, you are not the problem. You are not too emotional, too demanding, too much. You are exactly who this work is for, and you deserve care that starts with believing you.

This circle is wide enough for you, and your presence as an ally, as a witness, as someone willing to learn, matters.

If you are a provider, a community health worker, a nurse, a midwife, a doula who is tired of the system and trying to change it from the inside, sit down and stay awhile.

If you are a grandmother who raised her children without anyone calling it perinatal support, or a father trying to understand what his partner is going through, this circle was made with you in mind.

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What Belonging Looks Like

Belonging is built in the small, deliberate acts: the intake form that does not ask you to choose between only two boxes. The home visitor who drives out to meet you instead of waiting for you to come. The support group where the facilitator has a name like yours. The postpartum check-in that happens at six weeks and at four months, because grief and joy do not run on a schedule.

Belonging is what we are committed to building, not perfectly, not all at once, but honestly and with the community at the center of every decision we make.

During Black Maternal Health Week, we invite you to do one thing: tell someone. Tell a woman carrying life that her body is wise and her voice matters. Tell a new mother that her best is good enough. Tell a provider that you expect more. Tell yourself, if no one has told you lately, that you deserved better care than you received, and that healing is still possible.

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Circle of Luna Collective is growing. We are here in the rural communities of North Carolina, and we are here in this space, for anyone who finds their way to us carrying something heavy, looking for a place to set it down for a moment.

You were always meant to be here. The circle is open.

FROM OUR COLLECTIVE TO YOURS

If you or someone you love is navigating pregnancy, birth, or postpartum season in Hoke, Harnett, or Cumberland County, we are here. Reach out at hello@circloflunacollective.com or call 910-446-5466. Learn more at circleoflunacollective.com.

We invite you to share your thoughts or experiences in the comments below.