Tina Knowles, Kris Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, and More Join Elaine Welteroth in Celebrating The Launch Of birthFUND

Save for major awards events, few gatherings boast an attendee list including the likes of Tina Knowles, Kris Jenner, and Khloe Kardashian, for starters, but if any host can summon out among Los Angeles’ busiest residents, it’s Elaine Welteroth. Then, if any cause is worth ditching business meetings and photo shoots for, it was the inaugural celebration of Welteroth’s latest venture, birthFUND, a non-profit coalition that aims to combat surging maternal mortality rates in the U.S. by covering midwifery care fees for growing families unable to front the cost themselves.

“This is an issue that for too long has been relegated to the shadows,” Welteroth said during an opening speech. “It’s been marginalized. It’s certainly not something that we gather in our Sunday’s best and invest in.” In this case, and such is the goal of the birthFUND, it was. Guests arrived for the midday lunch at Brigette Romanek’s private Beverly Hills home (greeted with a live violinist at the entrance, no less), and were led to a spacious backyard area where rosé was served in blush pink wine glasses, and tables throughout were adorned with floral arrangements of similar hues.

Speakers took the stage while guests were served (on the menu—strawberry kale salad, chicken and waffles, black-eyed pea jambalaya, and sweet potato bread pudding), including Kelly Rowland, Jeannie Mai, and Abby Phillip. Others, such as Charles Johnson, birthFUND advisor and founder of 4Kira4Moms, an organization that started with the birth-related death of Johnson’s own wife, shared personal stories to help drive one point home: That 80% of maternal deaths could be prevented by wider access to midwife care.

A bevy of supportive donations were made before the close of the event (and a live music performance from Melanie Fiona), with $50,000 donations being made by both Kris Jenner and Briogeo’s Nancy Twine, along with a quiet contribution from Tina Knowles. Later, an especially beautiful moment came when Lauren London took the stage to present a $25,000 donation to Kindred Space LA, the small midwifery birth center that recently helped welcome Welteroth’s first child.

As it turns out, Kindred Space LA is somewhere Welteroth and her husband Jonathan Singletary will find themselves again sooner rather than later, with couple sharing an announcement of baby number two with their guests as the perfect end to the afternoon.