Claudia Booker

Claudia was born in Washington DC and lived there her entire life. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from University of Hartford in 1970 and her Masters in Education in 1971. She went on to complete her Juris Doctorate from Northeastern University School of Law in 1974. Prior to her work as a midwife and doula, Claudia was a lawyer and served two terms as a Judge with the DC Contract Appeals Board. She also worked several years as a DC Assistant Corporation Counsel and Chief Contracting Officer for several of the District’s largest agencies. She served President Jimmy Carter’s administration as part of his advance team.

Claudia attended two schools of midwifery as well as The Farm Midwifery School with Ina May Gaskin. She also completed a host of other specialized workshops while apprenticing with numerous midwives throughout the United States and abroad in Senegal, at the Kafountine Maternity Clinic. She became a CPM in 2011 and was a Licensed Midwife in Virginia and Maryland.Claudia served over ten years as a member of the District of Columbia Infant Mortality Review Committee. She was a key advisor for the Committee’s Stronger Together campaign, an initiative aimed at reducing infant mortality and premature birth. Claudia co-founded the Grand Challenge project, which challenged doula, midwifery, and breastfeeding programs to offer scholarships to African-American birth workers. 

As a Certified Professional Midwife and doula, Claudia served hundreds of families in the Washington DC area through her Birthing Hands Midwifery and Birth Services practice. In addition, she volunteered as an advanced practice midwife at the Bumi Sehat Clinic in Bali, Indonesia. In response to the devastation caused by Typhoon Yolanda, Claudia also volunteered as an advance practice midwife at a Birth Camp founded by Mercy In Action in Dulag, Lyete, Philippines.