Marinah identifies as an indigiqueer chicana daughter of a spiritual, artistic mother from Chihuahua, Mexico who taught her traditional medicine, a Chicano musician and Engineer father from the borderlands, and mother to indigenous mixed-race children and grandchildren.

Marinah is the owner of Phoenix Midwife and the founder of Indigenous Birth, an umbrella organization for diverse advocacy and health justice projects which affirms the importance of traditional and indigenous midwives and assembles initiatives and coalitions nationally and internationally. She is also a sometime podcaster, public speaker and writer.

Marinah has served as consultant, facilitator, board member, Executive Director, and midwife for health justice projects in the U.S, North America, Central America, and Uganda, facilitating policy initiatives on public health responses, indigenous/immigrant reproductive and primary healthcare access, education programs, birth center development, and workforce development.

Marinah is a founding member of Phoenix Allies for Community Health, a free clinic primarily serving immigrant families, a direct result of her active street medic work. Marinah is the past president of the Midwives Alliance of North America, and worked in a dedicated coalition with national midwifery groups for United States Midwifery, Education, Regulation, and Association (USMERA).

Marinah is a Culture of Health Leader, advisory board member for Birth Detroit, Team Leader for an all POC midwifery learning collaborative in Arizona through a project initiated by the Institute of Medicaid Innovation, working alongside native and indigenous immigrant communities on reclamation of birth sovereignty, and planning essential convenings for midwives and healers.

Marinah is a practitioner in Somatic Experiencing, with advancing certification in the prenatal and perinatal period, as part of her dedication to traditional medicine and healing.

Marinah is the past Director of Organizational Wellness with Birth Center Equity, and is currently under Fellowship.

Marinah’s current roles, besides the multiple projects of Indigenous Birth, focus primarily in facilitation with Breath of My Heart Birthplace, the only Native-led nonprofit free standing birth center in the United States, Center for Indigenous Midwifery, learning indigenous data collection in partnership with The Firelight Group, and working with her traditional teachers in Mexico learning traditional medicine, and creating artistic and medicinal resources.

Website: https://www.indigenousbirth.org/

Contact: [email protected]