Meet Leah Hairston
Vision, Expertise, Heart
Leah Hairston, MSSW, CD, is the founder of Sweet Bee Services and Sweet Bee Academy, based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Leah guides women as they turn fear into confidence, from pregnancy through the fourth trimester. Her practice is built on education, empowerment, and advocacy.
As a seasoned doula, perinatal social worker, and maternal health advocate, Leah has supported nearly 200 families through pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, with a 100% survival rate across her ten years in practice. She blends clinical expertise with real experience in the room, to create calm, informed, empowered births.
Through Sweet Bee Academy, Leah is redefining what evidence-based doula training looks like. She has trained doulas who now serve families directly across Maryland and beyond, each held to the same standard she practices by.
Sweet Bee Services is one of the only Black woman-led, Medicaid-approved doula training organizations in the state of Maryland— a distinction that underscores both her pioneering vision and commitment to access and equity.
Under Leah’s leadership, Sweet Bee Academy is preparing the next generation of doulas to serve families with real skill and real cultural fluency.
Having retired from serving clients in 2026, she focuses now on teaching, mentoring, or speaking on Black maternal health, birth equity, and community care. Every part of her work reflects one truth. When women are informed, supported, seen, the whole system starts to heal.
Under her leadership, Sweet Bee Services has become one of the only Black woman-led, Medicaid-approved doula training organizations in Maryland. That distinction is not an accident. It is what happens when access and equity are the actual plan, not just the language around it.
Leah's leadership has earned national recognition, most recently from Pharrell Williams' Black Ambition Prize, the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab, and the National Black Child Development Institute.
A graduate of Roland Park Country School, Howard University, and Columbia University, Leah is a lifelong learner. Her training includes Ancient Song Doula Services, Lactation Education Resources, Steamy Chick, Brilliant Birth Academy, and Grandma's Hands Herbal School. She is also a founding member, instructor, and mentor with the National Black Doula Association.
Healing, justice, and birth all live in the same place for Leah. That is why she is on a mission, alongside every doula she trains, to end maternal mortality and build a future where every birth is met with dignity, safety, and joy.
When she's not enjoying her family or training doulas, Leah enjoys cooking new recipes while listening to audiobooks, walking her dog T'Challa, and savoring time with her village.
Accreditations & Affiliations
![Badge with a handshake icon, orange banner with 'Official Educator,' teal background with '[m]otherboard birth' text.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6862ddb3d888d87643a05ad7/c4c68c2e-a8ad-40bf-8517-be3b5f6545c2/MotherboardOfficialEducator.png)
