A Little About us
Who We Are
Collective Care + Village
We are a collective of reproductive health and wellness practitioners providing holistic care and support to womxn, mamas, birthing persons and families.
We understand firsthand what our minds and bodies endure to create and sustain new life.
We understand the power behind centering Black/African and Indigenous traditions in holistic wellness and care during each phase of our reproductive health, pregnancy, birthing and postpartum experiences.
We also understand the significance of being surrounded by a nurturing village that supports us as we bloom.
Our Story
The Bloom Collective formed in December 2018 when we, a group of Black women birth keepers, were presented with an opportunity to practice in our own physical location in East Baltimore. Committed to doing meaningful work in reproductive justice for up to 15 years, we decided to collaboratively build a communal safe space for aspiring, expecting, and new Black mamas and birthing persons centered around love and care.
Through our work, we aspire to simply be what we needed during our own pregnancy and postpartum journeys. We are proud to walk with you and be part of the village that helps you navigate through one of the most sacred moments of your life.
We believe that when we are nurtured into our fullness, our children, families, and communities Bloom.
Stéphanie Etienne, CNM, MPH
Community Midwife & Co-Founder
Stephanie Etienne is passionate about midwifery as a tool for reproductive justice and empowerment. She has been working to bring holistic care to women and families for over 10 years. She holds a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Yale University. She received a Master of Public Health degree in health behavior and health education from UNC Chapel Hill. She received her nursing and midwifery degrees from Columbia University. She was a drug policy reform advocate and doula prior to becoming a midwife. She has worked as a nurse-midwife in both public institutions and private practice settings. As the proud daughter of Haitian immigrants Ms. Etienne is committed to improving healthcare access in Haiti through education and training. She lives in Baltimore MD with her husband and three children. She is the Board President for the Foundation for the Advancement of Haitian Midwives and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association to Advance Black Birth
Lindsay King, CBD
Birth Doula & Operations Manager
Lindsay King is a doula, and placenta encapsulation specialist. Born and raised in the Park Heights community in Baltimore City. Lindsay is dedicated to combatting the racial disparities in health care for black women giving birth. She earned her early education within the Baltimore City public school system, including Dunbar High School, followed B.S. in Business Administration from Morgan State University.After over 13 yrs in retail management, and over 12 in technology support and mentorship, she returned to the work she is most passionate about, maternal healthcare. In 2021, she decided to pursue doula training, followed by creation of her company, Love In Labor. Today, she is continuing to service the community, both on an individual basis, and collectively with a network of birth workers, midwives and practitioners dedicated to maternal health and reproductive rights and justice.
Velesha Burke, M.A., B.S., CD, PCD, CHES
Holistic Birth/Postpartum Doula & Perinatal Educator
Velesha is a second-generation perinatal specialist, doula, and birth activist who is passionate about service to expectant and new parents. Her combined expertise in women’s wellness and birth work is over eight years in practice. Velesha believes every person should have emotional, physical, and mental support while in all 4 trimesters (pregnancy, birth, postpartum, parent & newborn baby care). She is an advocate and educator for a woman to know her rights and choices for her prenatal care, birth options, and postpartum care.
Velesha was raised in a home where her Caribbean-American culture was celebrated. It was always encouraged to live your best life: spiritually, physically, mentally, intellectually, and emotionally. She has worked with women from the DMV and Tri-state areas which then expanded to serve women overseas from diverse communities in person and virtually: women of color, deployed military families from the USA, Canada, United Kingdom, and Italy. In addition to German families throughout Stuttgart Germany and surrounding areas. It is her desire to continue servicing pregnant parents and their families while currently residing in the DMV.
Her passion as a cultural birth worker leads to her strong beliefs:
Representation mattersYour birth mattersYour recovery mattersThe way you feel mattersParents you matter too
She is a multi-talented individual with credentials as a Holistic Lifestyle Educator who also holds a Master of Arts in Cultural Sustainability as an Anthropologist. With love to empowering women and families to live a “well” personal life. In living the best life daily, she practices and encourages the 5 dimensions of personal health: mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual which then leads to a holistic lifestyle, not a trend.
She is a mother of two high-spirited children, ages twelve and six years old.
Harmony Onyinyechi Madu
Community Engagament Intern
Harmony O. Madu is passionate about maternal health equity and the life-long success of Black families & individuals across the diaspora. Harmony is from Abingdon, Maryland and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health Studies from Johns Hopkins University. Harmony has served as a Patient Advocate at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, embarked on health equity research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Center for Diversity in Public Health, and is a currently training to become a Certified Breastfeeding Specialist in the Bloom Lactation Cohort. In her role as an intern, Harmony hopes to continuously expand her knowledge and skillset in maternal health and reproductive justice to be able to diligently serve and advocate for her communities.
Lauren Arrington, DNP, CNM, FACNM
Advisory Board Member & Childbirth Educator
As a midwife with a background in Africana Studies and history, Dr. Lauren Arrington is interested in applying tactics that emerge from social justice movements to achieve equity in perinatal care. She is an assistant professor in the Doctorate of Nursing Practice Program at Georgetown University School of Nursing, a practicing midwife in Maryland, and previously served as a maternal health advisor for Jhpiego, where she provided technical support for global health projects in Southern, West, and East Africa. She is the co-editor of a maternal health equity toolkit for Maryland Hospitals that was developed through the Maryland Maternal Health Innovation Program (MDMOM). She is also co-leading a community of learning to support Maryland birthing hospitals as they implement the maternal health equity toolkit. She serves on the Board of Commissioners for the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME) and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health. Her work leading a hospital-based quality improvement initiative to reduce peripartum racial and ethnic disparities was recognized with an award from the Alliance on Innovation and Maternal Health.
Tanay Lynn Harris B.A., CBS, CPE, PD
Director & Co-Founder
Tanay is a Certified Lactation Specialist, Certified Perinatal Educator with Commonsense Childbirth Institute, and a Postnatal Doula, trained with Abuela Doulas in the United Kingdom. She is a community centered researcher and ethnographer focused on Black maternal health, transnational reproduction, abolition and human rights. Tanay has worked with various national and international human rights and racial justice institutions over the past 18 years, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She has supported supreme court cases and civil rights violations that are centered on educational injustices, voting rights and criminal justice, which include ending the death penalty in states throughout the US.
Tanay is a trusted advisor and strategist to countless social impact organizations. She is an Advisory Board member of CLLCTIVLY, a Kindred Partner with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, and co-Chair of the Maryland Maternal Health Improvement Task Force. Her work through the years has deepened her commitment to the otherwise possibilities, coined by Dr. Ashon Crawley, that building the world we need and deserve is an everyday practice and she attempts to embody in her work as a birth worker and reproductive health practitioner.
In addition, she is a co-editor of a maternal health equity toolkit for Maryland Hospitals that was developed through the Maryland Maternal Health Innovation Program (MDMOM). She also helps facilitate the community of learning to support birthing hospitals to implement the maternal health equity toolkit. Tanay provides consultation to organizations and institutions that want to advance Black perinatal health and reproductive justice. Tanay is a graduate of Africana Studies at Temple University and the School for Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Tanay is co-teaching a course with Dr. Lisa E. Wright at Johns Hopkins University entitled “Reintroduction to Writing: Reproductive Justice in Baltimore” for the Spring & Fall 2024 semesters.