The Yolanda Shiphrah Kadima Foundation
Our Story
Yolanda “Shiphrah” Kadima grew up in Philadelphia telling people she wanted to be a mother, and being told that was not the right answer. She became one anyway, and she spent her life making sure other Black women were trusted to do the same. Her career began as a WIC breastfeeding peer counselor. She became an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, founded Loving Hands Lactation Care in 2012, and renamed it Maternal Roots as she grew into full spectrum doula work, women's herbal medicine, and a traditional midwifery apprenticeship. She helped birth more than sixty babies. In 2017 she took the name Shiphrah, after the midwife who defied Pharaoh to protect newborns.
On July 23, 2020 she welcomed her second set of twins, Shiphrah and Yavin, her sixth and seventh children. Four days later, on July 27, she passed at 35 years old. Her final request was a breast pump so she could keep nourishing her newborns. She left her husband Armand and seven children: Jamayla, Armand Jr., Alanna, Zaire, Qashar, Shiphrah, and Yavin.
She was working on a holistic daycare. She was building womb wellness circles. She was talking about a menstrual doula. She was just getting started.
Our mission
The Yolanda Shiphrah Kadima Foundation takes back the wellness of Black women and families. We restore ancestral wisdom, nourishment, community, and intuitive knowing to every stage of womb life, from a girl's first moon cycle through birthing, postpartum, and beyond, so that Black mothers are trusted, believed, protected, and alive to raise the children they carried.
Our vision
A world where Black maternal mortality is a memory, not a statistic. Where Black women trust their bodies, know their options, speak their symptoms, and are believed the first time. Where Black fathers walk into birth rooms as protectors and advocates. Where every Black baby is born into a community that shows up.
What we believe
Intuition is sacred.
Language is medicine.
Community is the intervention.
The father is not optional.
Ancient wisdom is evidence.
Medical systems are tools, not authorities.
Every stage of womb life matters.
Leadership
Armand Kadima
Founder
Yolanda's husband, who turned the loss of his wife into a mission to end preventable Black maternal mortality.
Jade Cline-Stokes
Executive Director
Carrying her name forward
In 2024 Armand carried Yolanda's story to Capitol Hill as a lived experience speaker for the Dads Matter Act and the Momnibus. The Georgia House of Representatives adopted a resolution, sponsored by Representative Park Cannon, recognizing September 19, 2026 as Yolanda “Shiphrah” Kadima Day, and February 13, her birthday, as Yolanda “Shiphrah” Kadima Day every year going forward.