Is America’s maternal health finally getting the attention it deserves?

For Mielle Organics founder Monique Rodriguez, a $2 million commitment to improving maternal health isn't simply philanthropy. It's personal.

At a birthFUND gathering on Martha’s Vineyard on August 15, Rodriguez announced a multi-year $2 million commitment to the maternal health organization founded by journalist Elaine Welteroth. The investment will help expand access to midwifery-led prenatal, birth, and postpartum care while also investing in the pipeline of people who provide that care.

The announcement comes amid a persistent maternal health challenge in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are preventable. The CDC has also found that Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes.

Rodriguez's investment demonstrates three important leadership principles: turn experience into action, invest in infrastructure rather than symptoms, and put capital behind the issues you say matter.

From Personal Tragedy To Purpose

The commitment carries particular significance because of Rodriguez's own story.

Before becoming the entrepreneur behind Mielle Organics, who sold the company for a 9-figure exit , Rodriguez worked as a labor and delivery nurse on Chicago's South Side. In 2013, she experienced a traumatic childbirth, and her newborn son, Milan, later died at six months old.

Rodriguez is now putting her resources behind an effort designed to help other families have different experiences.

“I was a labor and delivery nurse. I knew what was happening in my body, and I still could not get anyone in that hospital to act on behalf of me or my baby,” Rodriguez said in announcing the partnership. “That is not bad luck. That is a system failure.”

Her story also points toward a broader issue in maternity care: whether women feel heard. CDC research has found that about one in five women reported mistreatment while receiving maternity care, rising to roughly three in ten among Black, Hispanic and multiracial women. Nearly half reported holding back from asking questions or sharing concerns.

Investing In People, Not Just Programs

The most interesting part of Rodriguez's commitment is where some of the money is going.

The investment will establish the birthFUND Milan Rodriguez Midwifery Scholarship Program at Kennedy-King College on Chicago's South Side. Created by the Black Midwifery Collective, led by Star August-Ali, in partnership with the college, the multi- year initiative is expected to fund each cohort of student midwives.

That turns the donation from charity into something closer to infrastructure investment.

The latest March of Dimes data found that 34.6% of U.S. counties are maternity care deserts, meaning they have no birthing facilities or obstetric clinicians. About 2.4 million women of reproductive age live in those counties. Nearly 58% of rural counties lack an obstetric clinician.

Midwives could be one important part of addressing that shortage. The World Health Organization says that when midwives are properly educated and midwifery is integrated into health systems, quality midwifery care could avert more than 80% of maternal deaths, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths globally.

birthFUND has raised more than $6 million since its 2024 founding and supported hundreds of families through a network of 12 partner birth centers. birthFUND’s newest initiative moves the organization’s model further upstream - helping fund not only today’s care but tomorrow’s caregivers. Rodriguez’s contribution ensures its sustainability.

“We have spent two years proving that when a family can access midwifery care, birth experiences and outcomes improve significantly,” Welteroth said in announcing the partnership. “What we need now is investment in the future of the midwifery workforce”

That's where Rodriguez's decision offers a lesson beyond maternal health.

From Entrepreneur To Impact Investor

Rodriguez's journey also represents an evolution increasingly important for successful entrepreneurs: moving from building personal enterprise value to deploying that value against societal problems.

Since launching Mielle Organics in 2014, Rodriguez transformed the company from a kitchen-based startup into a major beauty brand before Procter & Gamble acquired it in 2023. She has spoken publicly about the difficulty of accessing capital as a Black woman entrepreneur and her desire to use her experience and resources to open doors for others.

Now that philosophy is expanding into maternal health through a personal connection with birthFUND’s founder. Elaine Welteroth has cultivated a diverse donor base that ranges from the Gates Foundation, Pivotal Ventures to individuals such as Serena Williams, Kerry Washington, and Karlie Kloss as well as companies like MAC, Pinterest, JP Morgan Chase and Pampers.

Leadership isn't only about identifying a problem or lending your name to a cause. Increasingly, the most consequential leaders can use their money, networks and personal experiences to build solutions designed to outlast them.

For Rodriguez, that means transforming one of the most painful chapters of her life into something that carries her son’s name—and potentially changes the ending of someone else’s birth story.