Rooted in the history and embodied wisdom of doulas and midwives, axes, herbs and satchels is a celebration of traditional knowledge held in the Black birth worker community and a potent examination of maternal mortality. 

The United States has a maternal mortality rate that is three times higher than any other high-income country. Black and Indigenous birthing people are particularly at risk, with death rates up to three times more likely than their white counterparts. Modern medicine may be at our fingertips, but did it come at the cost of losing the ancient practices of doulas and midwives? 

The play is being devised from an array of research materials; first hand accounts, medical textbooks, ethnological research, and primary sources documenting grand midwives and the history of midwifery.