Vigil for Dr. Janell Green Smith highlights national crisis in Black maternal health care

By Perrin Moore, ABC4

CHARLESTON , S.C. (WCIV) — The family of Dr. Janell Green Smith, a midwife and scholar who advocated for Black maternal health amidst an ongoing national systemic mortality crisis, has invited the community to attend a vigil in her honor Wednesday they say she died of complications from childbirth this month.

Dr. Smith, who proudly branded herself the Loc’d Midwife, worked in maternal health in South Carolina and with the nonprofit Hive Impact Fund, an organization that aids early parenting families through community events and accessible mental health tools.

She became a certified midwife in July 2021 after passing the certification exam amid the devastating loss of her brother. Persevering, Smith entered a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program before withdrawing when her mom tragically passed away on Mother’s Day in 2022. After starting with a new practice and getting engaged, she re-enrolled in 2023, and in 2024, got married and earned her doctorate, she disclosed on her Instagram profile.

In a statement posted Jan. 3, the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) mourned Dr. Smith’s passing and said her work reflected her deep commitment to respectful, evidence-based, and equitable care, recognizing her death as “a profound failure of the systems meant to protect birthing people.”

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The National Black Nurses Association said Dr. Smith’s scholarship and advocacy helped expand knowledge, elevate standards of care, and protect the dignity and lives of mothers and babies. “She understood the science. She understood the systems. She understood the stakes,” the association’s statement reads.

The original article has statements from both organizations.

Learn more about the Black maternal mortality crisis.

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