Uniting Ecuadorian Families with Professional Birth Workers

A non-profit making quality maternal healthcare accessible to all.

Mission

To create thriving family systems by reducing mental, physical and emotional trauma and radically improving infant and maternal health outcomes from pre-conception through the postpartum period.

Programs

A safe, inclusive space offering evidence-based wellness programs including sex education, prenatal and postpartum care, childbirth education, breastfeeding support and more.

Donate

Your generosity makes a difference in not only the life of one woman, but for future generations. Help create thriving family systems with your donation.

Jamie and Katia introduce Uma Shungo

Community. Safety. Support.

UMA SHUNGO = mind + heart connection

Uma Shungo Co-Founders
Jamie Weaver and Katia Salas

Uma Shungo is a midwifery run family resource center located outside of Quito Ecuador. The center weaves together modern medicine and ancient midwifery traditions. “Uma Shungo” is a common kichwa phrase that means mind & heart connection.

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Meet Jamie and Katia

Committed to providing essential prenatal health services to low-income and uninsured pregnant women in the local community, Jamie and Katia believe that all women should have access to quality healthcare during pregnancy, regardless of their income or insurance status.


  • Co-Founder, Uma Shungo

    Jamie Weaver has been attending births as a doula and midwife for 5 years. She has a long history of organizing cultural projects in Ecuador. She lived in Ecaudor for 7 years, starting as a Rotary exchange student and Fulbright Scholar where she learned to weave many international organizations and diverse people together. Her passion for birth, community health, and natural medicine sprouted as she studied alongside the Ecuadorian midwives learning from diverse cultures about childbirth and women's health. She travelled to California to gather advanced medical skills and was rigorously trained by a midwives in the Sacramento and Napa area. She is a Licensed Midwife by the California Medical Board, Massage Therapist, Anthropologist, and Childbirth Educator.

    Jamie graduated from the National College of Midwifery and also completed clinical hours at Maternidad La Luz on the Border of Juarez Mexico. She has had the pleasure and opportunity to accompany families on their birth journey in United States, Mexico, and in Ecuador.


  • Co-Founder, Uma Shungo

    Katia Salas has been providing community health services for more than 28 years to low-income pregnant mothers in rural areas in Pichincha and in marginal neighborhoods in Quito. Katia graduated Nursing school from the Central University located in Quito in 1988. She is a strong advocate for human and reproductive rights who offers childbirth education classes and midwifery services to diverse families.

    Katia has facilitated healthcare workshops in the Amazon with Shuar and Achuar women from 2013 to December 2022.