Birth at the Border: A Case Study of Refugees and Migrants at the Tijuana-San Diego Border

CNM Ximena Rojas Garcia is a Midwife and licensed Obstetric Nurse from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, she comes from a line of traditional midwives. Ximena has 15 years of experience in her field and as a Midwifery Professor, she has certifications in Obstetrical Emergencies, Neonatal Resuscitation, Water birthing and Acupuncture. Ximena founded "Partería y Medicinas Ancestrales," the only Mexican Midwifery NGO that includes Midwives from all paths and programs, which was instrumental in providing maternal health access during the humanitarian crisis after the arrival of thousands of asylum seekers from Haiti, Congo and Central America to the US-Mexico border.

Ximena has been collaborating with Stanford University's Obstetricians, Gynecologists and Pediatricians to train Midwives and Health providers at the US San Diego-Tijuana border to improve birth outcomes. She organizes direct relief to support trauma recovery responding to crises and disasters as a member of Acupuncturists Without Borders. Ximena also created a Doula training program, responsible for training more than 300 Doulas in Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala, aimed at eradicating obstetric violence, lowering the frequency of unnecessary c-sections, and decreasing maternal and newborn mortality.

Ximena is one of the founders and co-directors of Refugee Health Alliance and currently practices clinically at Justicia en Salud RHA Sexual & reproductive health free clinic. She established the first free birth center in Baja California, Mexico that serves vulnerable populations including displaced migrants, asylum seekers, deportees, sexual assault survivors, black, brown and indigenous families who historically had faced forced sterilizations, higher maternal death and newborn death. Her philosophy of birth is: Birth is a unique experience like a ceremony that heals trauma and the next generations when we hold space for it to happen.