About the Author

Miquilaue Young is wife to James and homeschooling mother to seven creative and energetic children. She has been blessed to have had six wonderful homebirths and loves to share about her beautiful birth experiences. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors and have a midwife journey alongside her during pregnancy and childbirth. She feels called to normalize homebirths within the African American community. She has always been a lover of natural holistic wellness and aspires to educate, encourage, and empower women who may be considering a homebirth. She is grateful to her Heavenly Father for giving her the opportunity to share her passion. She is originally from California and has a Bachelor of Social Work from Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, California, and a master's degree in African American Studies from UCLA in Los Angeles, California. She currently resides in Ferguson, Missouri. Chase Walker is a self-taught fine artist, photographer, graphic designer, and illustrator from Liberia a small West African country. He now lives in Philadelphia, PA.Chase's childhood was interrupted by a vicious civil war that forced his family to flee from Liberia to neighboring Ghana. There, the exhausted and frightened refugees were placed in a crowded camp for six long years. Even as a little boy Chase was curious and didn't let the chaos and camp walls contain his lively imagination (or stop some juvenile hare-brained "escape" attempts too.) But a box of old, donated comic books sparked the creativity that fueled his spirit of exploration - first as he read the stories, but then as he began to copy the illustrations on the ground, with the only tools he had - branches, mud, and his own fingers. At war's end Chase returned to Liberia and High School where he was hired to draw comics for a local newspaper. Quickly thereafter his political cartoons, first for the Daily Observer and then Front Page Africa became well-known as sharp, critical commentaries on the newly democratic Liberia. But every moment Chase wasn't working on pointed barbs for hire his paycheck and energies went to buying and using every artistic tool he could find, photography, watercolors, oil, pastels, pencil, charcoal, and even mud. During this second phase of his art self-education Chase was lucky enough to find Leslie Lumeh, a renowned Liberian artist, who served as a mentor and guide. Eager to use his skill to tell visual stories about his experiences and culture, Chase has had many artistic and commercial successes in Liberia. He was hired to illustrate a series of children's books published by CODE, a Canadian NGO, and to design social marketing campaigns for international organizations such as UNESCO. He also illustrated Big Belly Business, a Liberian pregnancy guide and program funded by the US State Department's Office of Global Women's Issues that has reached over 50,000 Liberian women and is supported by the Open Society Foundation. Now in the United States he is a working artist.