STORY
Every Woman Deserves a Midwife at Mujeres Aliadas
Collaborating with a Mexican non-profit organization that makes a significant impact for women in Michoacán
Vitamin Angels provides proven nutrition solutions and essential support to more than 1,200 program partners, including governments across 65 countries, to enhance access to health and nutrition services for pregnant women, infants, and children in underserved communities.
Our program partners have earned the trust and respect of their communities by seeking to understand and innovatively meet their needs. Read on to learn how one of our partners is making a difference by prioritizing the reproductive literacy of women in the state of Michoacan, Mexico.
“We enjoy collaborating with Vitamin Angels,” said Lisel, Executive Director of Mujeres Aliadas. “Over the years, we have received donations of vitamins that have greatly benefited the community. Women actively seek out these vitamins at health centers, allowing us to engage with individuals we may not have otherwise reached. We’ve observed that when the supply of vitamins runs out, there is a strong demand for more.”
A Vitamin Angels partner since 2018, Mujeres Aliadas is a non-profit organization committed to empowering women to take charge of their health. Through reproductive advocacy, education, and healthcare services, their approach is grounded in a holistic model of professional midwifery. At Mujeres, women are the decision-makers in their own healthcare, informing every choice that affects their bodies.
“Our work is necessary because we have observed that there are many cases of medical violence towards women that assume that women do not have rights as protagonists of their bodies. The midwifery model that we use at Mujeres Aliadas puts women at the center of their health. Every woman deserves a midwife.”
– Lisel, Executive Director of Mujeres Aliadas
Established in 2009 in Pátzcuaro, Mexico, Mujeres Aliadas employs professional midwives to provide clinical services, operates a professional midwifery school, and runs a community education program to increase women’s reproductive literacy and body acceptance.
The organization’s name translates to “Allied Women” in English, which reflects their mission to foster a strong community of women from rural to urban and Indigenous areas who support each other’s health throughout various life stages, from menstruation to menopause.
This model is effective, as evidenced by conversations with some of Mujeres’ patients. One such patient is Esmerelda, a 28-year-old mother of two who chose midwifery over conventional medical care because it better suited her family’s needs. She valued the personal care, information, and comfort the midwives offered, which contrasted sharply with the “cold and calculated” nature of standard medical healthcare, she described. And she was able to have her partner attend the birth of their baby, which is something that is typically disallowed in a hospital birth.
Esmerelda and her baby are part of the Mujeres Aliadas community, where she received prenatal vitamins and minerals provided by Vitamin Angels throughout her pregnancy.
Esmerelda is one of over 50,000 pregnant women who received the prenatal vitamins and minerals provided by Vitamin Angels last year. She took them at the advice of her midwife, Isabel, and reported having healthy and smooth pregnancies. Perhaps the most important thing Esmeralda learned in one of over 34,000 educational workshops the organization has delivered to women in the community– is that she has a choice. And that her choice matters when it comes to her and her babies’ health.
The Mujeres of Mujeres Aliadas
Lisel, Executive Director
Lisel has two daughters, and she talks to them a lot about reproductive and non-reproductive rights. Her work motivates her to teach her girls and the women in her community about the importance of agency and body autonomy. She wishes for her community to have a more balanced relationship between medical authorities and women. Her goal is to see the power dynamics shift so that women can make more decisions about their bodies because, in her view, no one else is more qualified to do so.
Isabel, Clinical Director
Isabel is the Clinical Director at Mujeres Aliadas. She supervises the midwifery school and the clinic’s team of midwives. A midwife herself, Isabel became enamored with the profession at just 16 years old. The school has trained about five generations of midwives, who have, in turn, delivered over 300 babies. A small class size of 10 trainees over three semesters ensures that Isabel and her team can provide an intimate and thorough education. “Midwifery is not just a profession,” Isabel said. “It is a philosophy of life because it represents mutual care and represents the space where we can remember that we have everything we need within.”
Margarita, Community Health Worker
Margarita, having grown up on the shores of Lake Pátzcuaro in Mexico, is deeply familiar with the area and its residents. Her intimate knowledge of the area makes her an effective community health worker who can act as the link between the health clinic and the community. Margarita can get the word out about upcoming distributions, identify patients in need of health services, and address the unique barriers to health in her community. When she is not serving her community, Margarita is shooting hoops as the captain of the local women’s basketball team!
Vitamin Angels is achieving significant impact by providing essential nutrition interventions to children and pregnant women in vulnerable communities in Mexico.
Together, we distributed 25,484 bottles of prenatal vitamins and minerals, reaching 50,968 pregnant women and their babies in 2024.