America Has a Problem: Black Maternal Health Week 2023
I wrote this blog weeks ago, but it has been so hard to JUST post it. As a content creator, it’s hard for me to JUST make a post about Black Maternal Health Week. Not only was my daughter born during Black Maternal Health Week, we both almost lost our lives during Black Maternal Health Week.
I entered the field of Public Health because of the health disparities that I saw growing up in my community. After a perfect pregnancy, I never expected to find myself within the pages of the many papers I’ve written on healthcare bias/racism.
Her birth injurieS, infectionS, sepsis, and literally everything else were completely avoidable had someone just listened to me. After 3 days of recklessness and suffering from the negligence of the hospital staff, I saw my child being handed off blue, limp, and lifeless. I listened to her be resuscitated and then a banged and bruised-up baby was held up to my face for 0.02 seconds and I was told to “say cheese!” I did. But apparently, it wasn’t good enough because the first thing that was written in my chart was “has a poor attitude.”
Like, let’s be real sis…For starters, in this moment I’m numb and traumatized. Nothing about the condition of the child you just dangled over me for two seconds like Michael Jackson felt right. And then it was a few days after Easter, y’all got my arms stretched wide and strapped down like I’m on the cross and I was truly convinced that I wouldn’t survive so I was more concerned about my husband and how he was able to deal with losing his wife and daughter. I’m thinking of my grandmother who died at the hands of a negligent medical professional and how my family was going to have to relive that shock. Sorry, I didn’t have a convincing smile?
And then I thought I did everything right. So many times people have dismissed my experience with, “Oh see that’s why I’m going to have a Black OB.” Well, I did have a Black OBGYN. But he couldn’t protect me from the absolutely careless nursing staff in the hospital when he wasn’t there. All of the extra lengths I went to to be comfortable, peaceful, and most importantly, healthy, ended with those nurses.
But I will thank God every single day for what could’ve been yet wasn’t and STILL isn’t and for the on-call OB, another Black man, who saved our lives. He said the condition I was in was something that you’d only expect to see in a third-world country. I think about that statement often. Because at the rate Black women are dying during childbirth in America, a “1st world country”… maybe we should revisit these titles…
And even after our lives we sparred once, my daughter STILL received subpar care. I even had multiple hospital administrators sent to my room to confront (and I suppose to attempt to intimidate) me after begging for days for her to be transferred. In which she wasn’t transferred until we were given a near-fatal report that I knew was coming. We were just in shock. On April 13th 2021, we watched the White House recognize Black Maternal Health Week for the first time. The next day we watched as our daughter was loaded into an ambulance, alone due to COVID protocol.
I don’t find jokes about me having more kids funny. The experience of having my daughter is still numbing. The thought of it immediately sends me back to that cold room with blinding lights and that blue limp baby. Last week I finally had the courage to finish reading through my medical report to try to understand just a piece of why? But I was left even more confused and angry. At some point we have to start listening, we have to listen to Black women. It’s okay to just listen.
#BMHW23 #BlackMamasMatter #BlackMaternalHealthWeek #ReproJustice #BirthJustice #MaternalEquity #BlackMaternalHealth #BirthEquity #EndMaternalMortality #BlackWomenLead
