Honoring Dr. Shalon Irving. Protecting Black Mothers.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project (DSMAP) is a national initiative transforming Black maternal health through healing, advocacy, and culturally grounded community action.
In the United States, Black women are more than three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as white women ~ regardless of income, education, or access to insurance.
These deaths are not due to biology or behavior. They are rooted in a healthcare system that too often fails to listen to, honor, and protect Black lives.
Behind every statistic is a daughter, sister, partner, friend, and mother.
A family left forever changed.
Rooted in the SHALON Method™
All of our work at Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project is grounded in the SHALON Method™—a community-centered framework that challenges systems to see Black women as whole people.
Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project (DSMAP) was founded to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Shalon Irving, a CDC epidemiologist who died after her repeated pleas for help were ignored in the weeks following childbirth. Her death was not inevitable—it was the result of a system that too often fails to listen to Black women.
Our work is rooted in her vision of equity, accountability, and the power of community to transform maternal health outcomes for Black families. We advance this vision through culturally grounded, community-designed initiatives that blend healing, education, and systems change.
How the Health System Often Fails Black Mothers
Black mothers in the U.S. are too often dismissed, unheard, or misdiagnosed—even when they advocate for themselves. Research shows that Black women are more likely to have their pain underestimated, their symptoms ignored, and their care delayed.
These are not isolated incidents. They are the outcomes of systemic bias, structural racism, and a healthcare system that lacks culturally responsive care.
The consequences are deadly: preventable complications, trauma, and maternal deaths that should never happen.
The system isn’t failing Black mothers—it was never designed to protect them.
We are not here only to grieve.
We are here to demand change.
Dr. Shalon, and so many other women, should be here.
Their story fuels our commitment to justice in Black maternal health.
We teach, empower, and advocate—building what Dr. Shalon was denied, and what every Black woman rightfully deserves.
Be part of the change.
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Protecting Black women means reimagining care from the ground up.