BW4HL holds inaugural Black Women’s Health Conference

About 120 Black women attended the Black Women 4 Healthy Living’s inaugural 4 Seasons of Black Women’s Health Conference held Aug. 19, at Grand View University in Des Moines. Black Women 4 Healthy Living (BW4HL), a Christ-centered wellness movement in its third year, organized the conference.

Topics included diabetes, breastfeeding, domestic violence, breast cancer, gynecological cancer, money, trauma-informed parenting and menopause, among others. The nonprofit group’s planning committee developed the free conference to appeal to Black women in the four seasons of their lives — from young adults to seniors, who experience changes that can bring necessary shame, confusion, conflicted feelings and worry, said the group’s president, Brandi Miller.

“It’s just about the stages of life, and so I thought how appropriate to recognize that, at different stages, we need to have different things looked at,” she said.

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This story first appeared in the fall 2023 edition of the Black Iowa Newspaper.