Hidden Gems: Meet Shayla Bryant of Malawi’s House

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shayla Bryant.

Hi Shayla, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
In July 2016, during my postpartum healing session with my beloved midwife, Nana Siti, I received a clear vision: to start a birthing supply business that provides Homebirth Kits and offers education to empower the community about homebirths and natural birthing.

Our first homebirth experience with our daughter, Maya Malawi, was deeply transformative for me and my family. The feeling of having a non-medicated homebirth was liberating and life-changing. On that day, I tapped into an ancestral strength, an inner power that only a laboring mother can access. Together as a family, we embraced the birthing journey on a profound level, guided by the wisdom and support of our midwife. We also experienced the beauty of Lotus Births with both our daughter and later with our son.

In August 2018, we welcomed our second daughter through another empowering homebirth. With this experience, I approached birth with even more intention, awareness, and reverence. Most recently, in May 2023, we celebrated our third homebirth with the arrival of our son.

Sharing our birth stories with other families and expectant mothers brings me joy. I especially hope to inspire those who wish to exercise their right to birth naturally at home, and showing them that this experience is possible, and deeply liberating for the entire family.

After my second birth in 2018, I began hearing more and more devastating stories about Black women facing disproportionately high rates of complications, and even death related to hospital births. I learned that Black women are three to five times more likely than white women to experience pregnancy and childbirth related complications, including postpartum, and that Black infants die at more than twice the rate of white infants. This painful truth ignited a fire in me to advocate for Black maternal health, homebirth options, natural birthing experiences, maternal sepsis awareness, and sacred healing traditions.

In May 2021, I became a certified Holistic Birth & Postpartum Doula/Birthworker, and a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor. It is my honor and calling to support families through empowered, informed, and sacred birth experiences. In 2024, we established a non-profit organization, Malawi’s House Foundation, Inc., to financially support families; with a strong focus on Black families desiring an autonomous home birthing experience with a professional midwife.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One of the major challenges I experienced with launching and growing Malawi’s House was overcoming skepticism and cultural misconceptions about homebirth, especially within the Black community. For many, the idea of birthing outside of a hospital setting was met with fear or doubt, due to generational trauma, lack of access to trusted information, and mainstream medical narratives.

Another significant obstacle was building the business from the ground up with limited resources. As a new, family-centered entrepreneur and mother of young children, I had to navigate the demands of parenting while wearing multiple hats, product sourcing, community outreach, education, and advocacy, without a large support team or startup funding.

Emotionally, it was also challenging to carry the weight of maternal health disparities in the Black community while trying to be a source of light and empowerment for others. Hearing stories of loss and trauma while advocating for change fueled my passion but also reminded me daily of the urgency and the emotional toll of this work.

Despite these challenges, each obstacle has deepened my commitment to the mission of Malawi’s House, to provide access, education, and empowerment for families seeking natural and sacred birthing experiences.

We’ve been impressed with Malawi’s House, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Malawi’s House began as a vision during my postpartum healing journey, a calling to provide birthing supplies, education, and support to families seeking natural and empowered homebirth experiences. Over the years, our offerings have evolved, but our mission has remained the same: to honor and support families, especially Black families through sacred birthing and postpartum transitions.

As life shifted and I returned to full-time work, Malawi’s House gracefully pivoted to focus on postpartum support services, where we continue to serve clients with a holistic approach. We now specialize in postpartum doula care, offering emotional, physical, and spiritual support to mothers, as they navigate the tender, often overlooked fourth trimester. My newest venture is becoming a Full-Spectrum Doula Trainer and Executive Director of The <i>Better</i> Birth Worker with my amazing business partner, Marisa Coloñ in Jacksonville, Florida. We have officially certified our first Summer 2025 Cohort and looking forward to certifying more aspiring Doulas in the near future.

Our postpartum services include:
-In-home or virtual support sessions
-Herbal and nutritional postpartum healing guidance
-Breastfeeding support
-Bengkung Belly Binding
-Sacred postpartum rituals rooted in ancestral traditions
-Emotional check-ins and birth processing conversations

Malawi’s House is a maternal wellness business in Atlanta that provides culturally centered postpartum doula care and childbirth education for Black families. Founded by a mother with personal experience with multiple home births, it offers holistic support rooted in ancestral practices and modern care. Through advocacy, education, and community engagement, Malawi’s House empowers and uplifts Black families.

I’m most proud of the way Malawi’s House continues to evolve while staying rooted in its original vision: to support families in reclaiming natural, sacred, and sovereign birth and postpartum experiences.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
The success of Malawi’s House would not be possible without the unwavering support of my amazing husband, Isaiah Bryant, whose encouragement and belief in the vision have been foundational. I’m also deeply grateful for family, friends, doulas, midwives, other birth working professionals, advocates, and clients that have poured into this journey with us, as everyone played a vital role in shaping and sustaining this work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wearemalawishouse.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/malawishouse

Image Credits
Carlisa Neal