Institute for Restorative Maternal Care™
Join us in exploring new frontiers in system transformation serving maternal and women's Health
Innovative Science and Relational Solutions
Advancing safe, high-quality, and restorative maternal care across healthcare systems and academic institutions.
We are honored to introduce the Institute for Restorative Maternal Care™ (IRMC), a new institute dedicated to advancing safe, high-quality, and restorative maternal care across healthcare systems and academic institutions.
The Institute was established in response to persistent gaps in maternal safety, quality, and trust, gaps that cannot be addressed by clinical evidence alone. While evidence-based medicine remains essential, lasting improvement in maternal outcomes requires systems-level learning, relational accountability, and restorative approaches that acknowledge and repair harm while strengthening care delivery.
Operated by Body and Soul Sovereignty United (Aka Bass United), the Institute partners with hospitals, health systems, and academic institutions to prevent maternal harm, improve outcomes, and restore trust through evidence-informed, restorative maternal care practices.
What the Institute Does
The Institute for Restorative Maternal Care™ provides:
- Systems-based education and training for healthcare organizations and academic institutions
- Faculty-led learning for clinicians, administrators, leadership, and staff
- Restorative maternal care frameworks that integrate safety, quality, accountability, and trust
- Leadership and executive education focused on sustainable systems improvement
- Certification and faculty development pathways grounded in Restorative Maternal Care (RMC)
This work represents an evolutionary shift in how maternal care is taught, practiced, and repaired, placing dignity, relationship, and accountability alongside clinical excellence.
A Growing Community of Trailblazers
Participants in the Institute join a growing national community of restorative maternal care trailblazers and torchbearers, clinicians, educators, administrators, and leaders committed to advancing safer, more reliable, and more humane maternal care systems.
Looking Ahead
Additional details regarding partnerships, faculty, certification pathways, and upcoming programs will be announced in the coming months.
We invite healthcare systems, academic institutions, and aligned partners to learn more and explore collaboration opportunities with the Institute.
Join Us in This Work
Whether you represent a healthcare system, academic institution, or professional organization, we welcome your partnership in advancing restorative maternal care.
Learn More About the Institute. Explore Partnership Opportunities: Join the Restorative Maternal Care Network
The Institute for Restorative Maternal Care™
For inquiries about partnerships, training, or certification:
Contact Email - lr@bassunite.org
© 2026 Body and Soul Sovereignty United. All rights reserved.
The Institute for Restorative Maternal Care™ is a trademark of Bass United.
Reimagining Maternal Health Through Systems Change
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a condition characterized by elevated blood glucose levels during pregnancy that can pose serious risks for both mother and child. A systems transformation approach recognizes that GDM is influenced by clinical, social, and structural factors, and addresses these through integrated, equity-informed care.
When integrated with trauma-informed, culturally responsive practices and intentional attention to social determinants such as food access and continuity of care, this approach deepens patient engagement, enhances satisfaction, and fosters strong, trust-based partnerships between clients and clinicians.
Hypertensive Disorders
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Beyond preeclampsia, hypertensive disorders such as gestational hypertension require timely recognition and consistent management to prevent escalation. Systems transformation strengthens this by establishing reliable care pathways for routine blood pressure assessment, rapid response to abnormal findings, and seamless coordination across care teams. When health systems ensure consistent follow-up, clear clinical protocols, and accessible patient support, they reduce delays in treatment and improve blood pressure stabilization throughout pregnancy.
These system-level improvements also create conditions for sustained engagement, supporting patients with clear guidance, continuity across visits, and access to resources that enable adherence. As a result, maternal hypertension is managed more effectively, reducing severe complications while promoting safer pregnancies and healthier postpartum outcomes.
Preterm Birth
Gestational Diabetes (GDM)
Labor and Delivery
Preterm birth, defined as delivery before 37 weeks of gestation, remains a leading contributor to neonatal morbidity and mortality and is often driven by a complex interplay of clinical, behavioral, and environmental factors. A systems transformation approach strengthens prevention by aligning early risk identification with proactive, team-based care, including timely referrals, consistent prenatal engagement, and integration of behavioral health and social support services. This is especially critical in maternity care deserts, where limited access to obstetric providers and facilities increases the risk of delayed or inadequate care. Expanding care pathways through community-based models, telehealth, and coordinated regional networks helps bridge these gaps and ensures earlier intervention.
By improving access, continuity, and coordination across care settings, while addressing underlying drivers such as stress, housing instability, and limited resources, health systems can reduce fragmentation that contributes to preterm birth risk. These system-level changes promote earlier stabilization of maternal health, improve adherence to care plans, and ultimately decrease the likelihood of preterm delivery while supporting healthier outcomes for both mother and infant.
Labor and Delivery
Labor and Delivery
Labor and Delivery
Effective systems change in labor and delivery enhances clinical decision-making by establishing clear, evidence-based protocols, real-time communication, and coordinated response systems that support timely and appropriate interventions, including cesarean birth when necessary. By breaking down siloes not only across obstetric, nursing, anesthesia, and neonatal teams but also integrating doulas, social services, and mental health support, care becomes more holistic and responsive to the full spectrum of patient needs. This interdisciplinary collaboration fosters shared situational awareness and collective accountability, allowing teams to respond more effectively to changes in maternal or fetal status and optimize the course of delivery.
These system-level improvements also center the birthing person’s experience, ensuring they are informed, emotionally supported, and actively engaged in decision-making. With reduced fragmentation, stronger coordination across clinical and community supports, and continuity of care, health systems can improve safety, reduce unnecessary interventions, and achieve better outcomes for both mother and baby while honoring the dignity and complexity of the birth experience.
Mental Health
Labor and Delivery
Mental Health
Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and chronic stress during pregnancy and birth are significant contributors to adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. A systems transformation approach strengthens support by embedding routine mental health screening into prenatal, intrapartum, and extended postpartum care, especially through the first year after birth, when depression and the risk of perinatal suicide are at their highest. By establishing seamless referral pathways and integrating behavioral health with obstetric, primary care, and community-based services, systems can identify concerns earlier and ensure timely, coordinated interventions.
These changes are further reinforced through culturally responsive, trauma-informed care and expanded access to support via doulas, peer networks, and community resources, particularly in under-resourced settings. When mental health care is continuous, accessible, and normalized across the full perinatal period, patients are more likely to engage in care, strengthening emotional well-being, enhancing trust in care teams, and improving outcomes for both mother and baby.
Mortality
Labor and Delivery
Mental Health
Maternal and neonatal mortality remain deeply inequitable, with Black and Indigenous women experiencing significantly higher rates of death compared to all other groups, a disparity driven not by biology but by systemic inequities, structural racism, and fragmented care. While predictive tools can help identify risk earlier, lasting change requires a systems transformation that centers equity at every level of care delivery. This includes standardized, bias-aware clinical protocols; coordinated, interdisciplinary care; meaningful integration of community-based supports; and accountability structures that ensure timely, respectful, and appropriate care for every patient.
By redesigning systems to address both clinical risks and the underlying social and structural drivers of health, we move from reactive care to proactive, preventive, and person-centered models. When care is continuous, culturally responsive, and supported across the full perinatal period, health systems can not only reduce maternal mortality but also actively work toward its elimination. At the heart of this transformation is empathy, cultivated through truth and reconciliation, where healthcare systems acknowledge historical and ongoing harms, listen to lived experiences, and commit to repairing trust.
This pathway to empathy is essential to restoring dignity, strengthening relationships, and ensuring that Black and Indigenous women receive the care, respect, and justice they have always deserved.
About BASS United
Our Mission
Body and Soul Sovereignty United (BASS United) is dedicated to advancing gender and health equity through transformative systems change, with a focused commitment to improving maternal health outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Our mission centers on cultivating empathy as a foundational force within healthcare, supporting clinicians in developing deep self-reflexivity and addressing unrecognized biases embedded in systems that perpetuate maternal and women’s health disparities. At the same time, BASS United uplifts and empowers women of color as essential partners in reshaping the conditions that influence health and well-being throughout pregnancy, birth, and beyond.
Systems change is not simply about efficiency; it is about transformation through empathy.
As clinicians and healthcare leaders, we understand that shifting perspectives requires more than knowledge; it requires the capacity to truly see, hear, and honor others' lived experiences. Empathy becomes the bridge, connecting clinical care with the social, historical, and structural realities that shape both illness and wellness.
When empathy is centered, care moves beyond transactions and becomes relational. It restores connection, accountability, and humanity within healthcare systems. It ensures that those we serve receive not only clinical expertise, but care grounded in compassion, presence, cultural humility, and respect. And when systems feel strained or providers feel depleted, empathy creates space for shared responsibility and renewal. Empowered women of color rise not as passive recipients of care but as leaders, guides, and partners, bringing their knowledge, voices, and lived experiences into the healing process.
This is not just care.
This is empathy in action.
This is restoration.
This is relationship.
This is kinship.
And so it begins...
Our Partners
