Black Maternal Health Matters

We unpack why Black mothers still struggle to be heard in delivery rooms, tracing real births marked by hyperemesis, a fetal heart variant, precipitous labor, and COVID barriers. We share tools to prepare, ask better questions, and build a birth team that acts fast and treats fairly.

• medical bias, training gaps, and how language at the bedside shapes care
• hyperemesis, shortened cervix, and NICU triage as lived realities
• ARSA explained in plain terms and monitored with cardiology follow‑up
• missed VBAC options, informed consent, and why second opinions matter
• doulas, midwives, and birth plans as advocacy tools
• navigating insurance changes and uneven quality of care
• fast labors, escalation scripts, and pre‑registration tactics
• Western medicine’s symptom focus vs root‑cause approaches
• practical questions to ask about meds, risks, and alternatives
• building trust without ignoring history and stereotypes

This episode is in affiliation with Bog Bag. It’s durable, waterproof, modular, and fully customizable. You’ll find the link in the show notes and the comments

Transcript

Cold Open And Show Intro

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Listen, if I didn't help you gonna hear me ice cream so if you ain't gonna help me. Oh, she was here yesterday. Get her in the back and the back of paper and I have her stuff.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Um on the labor and delivery super nice things.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Uh-uh, especially when you're young or if you look younger than you are. Yeah. We all deserve fair treatment.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

What makes y'all think? Oh, I'm just not, I'm just gonna mistreat that boy because he's black. That boy is a nothing to you. That child is done nothing to you.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

I just don't understand it. Sitting like this in the um in the wheelchair, the lady was like, Well, we gotta get all your information.

Host Catch‑Up And Grief

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Woman in Black is where we put down the cape and pick up the mic, being authentically who we are, where we are, unmasked, unfiltered, and unapologetic.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Hi everyone, we're back to our original setup. Switching it up. Yeah, let's check in. How have you been?

SPEAKER_03 1:10

Well, guys, I've been, you know, good, but I have some sad news. My puppy dog passed away. Rest in peace. Jr. Jace named him. If anyone has any coping mechanisms for a 10-year-old boy that's sad about his dog, let me know. And whoever hit my dog and didn't stop, that was so inhumane of it. You could have at least stopped and said, God, I'm sorry, something. You just don't hit. You knew you hit that little dog. I will definitely treat you better. But yeah. RIP chomper.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

I'm not trying, I'm executing. Also, uh shifting. And that has been me for the last three or so months, like that shift, that that adjustment, that change, transition. Um, so I'm embracing it. I I'm still moving through, you know. Um, but I I feel calm in that I understand what the vision for my next chapter is. And I'm just executing. And so and and I had I had to embrace the process. I've accepted that. Oh wow, this is what it's gonna look like for the next three to six months, possibly, until things settle in. Anytime you're trying to build something, you have to be okay with the process and the fact that instant gratification is not always the outcome. So you just have to stay the course. And so just reminding myself to stay the

Sponsor Message: Bog Bag

SPEAKER_02 2:41

course.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Hey, it's Des here. Before we continue, if you're a woman who does it all, sports mom, dance mom, beach girl, healthcare worker, someone whose life doesn't fit into one lane, you need a bag that can be fun. This episode is in affiliation with Bog Bag. It's durable, waterproof, modular, and fully customizable. Whether you're headed to the stadium, the beach, or straight into a long day, it holds your lifestyle together without you having to think about it. You'll find the link in the show notes and the comments. Now let's get back to the conversation.

Why Black Women Aren’t Heard In Labor

SPEAKER_03 3:19

So we're gonna just jump right on in. My question is Why are black women still fighting to be heard in delivery rooms in 2026? I'm gonna let you take the lead. Because you you've experienced a lot of different things. Like mine were all C-sections, no sickness, no nothing, like straight to the point. You know what I mean? So I I can't I think I was treated correctly. I'm not sure. Right? We don't know now. You never know. You never know, but I didn't experience a lot of different things and having to be bedridden and you know what I mean? So I'm gonna let you take it.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Yeah, I had very traumatic pregnancies

Training, Bias, And Self‑Advocacy

SPEAKER_02 4:03

for sure. I think that there is and have always been a disconnect to healthcare in a black community. I think a lot of it is training, a lot of it is cultural bias, and a lot of it is also education for us because we don't always know the right words or right uh uh ways to express what we need. And and I say that because when you're put in situations, um, doctors are trained in their bedside manners um to hear certain things and react to those things, right? If we're not saying it, it's also an issue. But you want from the human side, if you see I'm in pain or if you see I'm this or that, I need you to react and respond with urgency. And that's what we want regardless. Um, but I think it's important to throw that in there that there are some things that we can do to kind of help further things along, um, and it in educating ourselves, educating our sisters, educating the husbands, the family, um, having birth plans, all of that stuff, because we know there's a cultural bias.

Traumatic Pregnancies And Hyperemesis

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Now, my personal experience, Lord have mercy. I have not had an easy pregnancy. I don't know what that is. I I don't I don't even know. But um, I would say my first probably was the easiest. I am the woman who, when you get pregnant, dark hormonal shift, um, it I would get hypermesis. And that is like morning sickness times 10. Like where you're dehydrate, you throw you grew up so much that you're dehydrated, you gotta go to the doctor to get an IV, um, you're dizzy, you're you're you don't feel like yourself, you almost feel like something's invading your body. Like, as they say, um when you're pregnant, that that that pregnancy is a parasite. It eats off of you, it eats off your vitamins, it drains you. And so physically, I felt every bit of that. I felt every bit of that. Um, so my first experience, I was like, wow, I'm never gonna get pregnant again. Like this, this, I would never. That's what that's how I spoke to myself. Then 10 years later, I was like, oh shoot, what am I gonna do? I was like, oh goodness. By that time, I was like about to, I was edging up on 30. So I couldn't, I was like, ah, hey, I gotta figure this out. I'm my grown woman era now, right? My first pregnancy,

Fetal Heart Abnormality And Tough Choices

SPEAKER_02 6:45

I was 18. So imagine how difficult that transition was. And then um, yeah, so at 28 I had Nia. And that was also an experience because during my pregnancy with her, um I was notified that she had in something called a barent right subclavian artery. So she the structure of her heart was different, and they caught it in fetal. So, like during the fetal ultrasound, they caught it. I was aware of what they said because of my healthcare background. I understood, but you never think that your child's gonna experience some some type of abnormality where you don't know if she's gonna make it. And so at 23 weeks, the doctor is when the doctor did the ultrasound. Um, it was actually supposed to be my 24-week ultrasound, but he did it a week before Christmas, because my 24 weeks would have been on um during the Christmas break. So he did it a week before when he found it, they told me I had to make a decision on whether I was gonna keep my pregnancy or not. The way I cried, the way I was confused, but the way that I had faith in God too. And because of my um healthcare background, I knew that there was a chance, right? And so the the issue with um, they call it ARSA. The issue with ARSA is that um it's more common in kids who either have like Down syndrome or trisomy X, which is a um, these are genetic uh diseases that you you can get. Um, and so they weren't sure if she was gonna come out with that. And so I had to prepare myself, like, okay, if I move forward with this, there's a a a percentage that my child's gonna come out with um like a genetic issue, you know, where she may not thrive, or where as a single mom of two, will I have the support system to be able to take care of a child with special needs if that's what's to happen. I had to suck it up and I just I just went forward with the pregnancy. Um, I talked it over with my family, I expressed to them what the issue was, and I had to exercise my faith. I got through it, but it was hard, and she came out, it's uh it's a lot, but she was rushed to the NICU

NICU, Follow‑Up, And Using Health Literacy

SPEAKER_02 9:10

because she had like respiratory failure. Um, and uh from the arsa, her right subclavian wraps around her trachea. Well, it's actually actually between her trachea and her esophagus, so she couldn't breathe. And so she had to, she was in a NICU um for a few days. Luckily, she was able to leave with me. And when I tell you, I was trying so hard to like stay as long as I could because I did not want to leave my baby in the hospital. I was like, with the dead extent that I was leaving, I was I was taking my sweet time because I needed to hear from all the pediatricians all day. I was like, I'm not leaving her. Like, I really want to hear back first on whether or not she could come home. So I was supposed to check out like 10, 11 or so. Girl, I ain't leave the house until like 7 o'clock at night because somebody was gonna talk to me. And um, they let her come home with me. And um now we just go to a cardiologist to stay on top of it. But she's um asymptomatic, which means she has no symptoms. Um, the only symptom she had was at birth, and she hasn't needed any surgeries, and we just kind of stay on top of that. And um that when we talk about black maternal health and that facet of things, I my pregnancy still, I had hypermesis with her too. So vomiting and all of that. I was still very sick. If it wasn't for my education in um cardiovascular, you don't think they would have broken, you would have had a couple of things. I wouldn't have, I probably wouldn't have gone forward with the pregnancy.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Right, because here is here it is, they'll tell you, they'll just give you that big word. Give me what it is, the statistics, but that's it.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah, you don't have no more information. And so because I was familiar, I've done, I've seen these things before in real time on healthy children. When I was doing the the echo, the sonography of the the children, I've I've seen healthy ones, I've seen, you know, some that that they're healthy, they just had a different genetic disposition. But I I seen it, so I knew, oh, well, she could fall. I don't care if it's 10%, 20%, but it's a possibility. Um, but I also prepare if it didn't, you know, happen

Misdiagnosis Fears And Medical Trust

SPEAKER_02 11:35

the way that it did. I was trying to prepare myself mentally. Um, but yeah, if I didn't know what I knew, I I I would have been so much worse. And I was bad.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Yeah. Here's the thing, they give you that big word. And we don't we I know this only because they um it's all over social media. It's all over social media. And I did have a few instances where they um misdiagnosed my son. But he was this is this is about maternal health, and he's my child, so it wasn't during my pregnancy because it was a baby. He was like four or five. And they tried to put him on some medication and it took over the hit, and I was like, So I had to do my own research. Right. But think about all the babies that come right out. This might sound messed up, but I think sometimes they purposely misdiagnose our kids.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Oh yeah, they purposely misdiagnose us.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Yes, but and it starts from when we're born too into adulthood and all that. So if you if if you don't sound educated and you don't ask the correct questions, they're gonna let you a lot of times believe just what they want you to believe. And some of the things in my mind, in my opinion, those medicines, those medications are not always needed for certain. You know what I mean? Like they just misuse, mishandle the medications, they just kind of do us like, do our kids like guinea pigs.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

Oh, you know, I I have a clinical research background, so hearing over guinea pigs in the black community, that's this is a real issue.

Western Medicine Vs Root Cause Care

SPEAKER_02 13:15

This this is a separate conversation, but because of the historical nature of how they used to test on us and how in society um we were the guinea pigs. Um, and not just a black culture, but it's it's deep-seated in a black culture, let's be real. There were other ethnicities, there were other segments of the population, like prisoners and things like that, that were also used in clinical trials, but I think it groomed the mindset around are you someone I can trust? And for for black people, um I think that that's a heavy question because history tells us that we can't trust medical professionals. And I know that, you know, people in healthcare now work very, very hard to change that narrative, you know, through training, through understanding um how to approach different ethnicities, religions, everything. But we still have work to do. We have a lot of work to do.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Right. And it's just like we can't, again, we can't group everybody together, right? Because not all white doctors have our worst interests in mind, and not all black doctors have our best interests in mind, and not all, you get what I'm saying? So it's it's just like what I do, and I'm gonna teach this, I'm gonna help y'all. Before I'm seen, before my kids are seen, I always ask God to send his ministry angels before me and my children.

Bed Rest, Short Cervix, And Work Stress

SPEAKER_03 14:46

That's right. Just go ahead, God, do you think? Send them. And you and I all I have the spirit of discernment. So if something don't sound right, I'm gonna question it. I'm gonna go back to dance, I'm gonna go back to somebody, and I'm gonna say, Well, what you think about this? Somebody that's more information, somebody that's more educated in that area than I am, because I need to know what's going on. And that's sometimes as a culture where we are ignorant. Yeah, we just don't know. We just don't know, and a lot of us don't want to know. We just weren't talking to go get more information. It was just like they're a doctor, I gotta trust them because that's what they went to school for. It's okay for you to do your own little background. That's your body, your baby, your health, your baby's health, your children's health.

SPEAKER_02 15:30

Just like because again, for the background that started in cardiovascular, and we'll get back to paternal health in a second. But um, I remember um seeing patients where they were on statins. Black people on statin. What's gonna happen? You're gonna get edema, you're gonna, you like a lot of fluid buildup. Um, our body, it reacts different to certain medications than others. And you know, listen, let's just be real. Black people, we like to eat, okay? Our soul food, we like to eat. And so when you, you know, have high blood pressure, you have, you know, a blocked artery and all these different things, and you get on certain medications, um, you have to understand, or you have to ask, has I'm listening, this is what I do. Have this been tested on black people? No. The doctors are always gonna know the answer. Um, because the clinical scientists or the physician scientists are usually the ones who um do that, and they they share that information with the doctor so that they could make a conscious decision, is is this gonna help you more than it will hurt you? Is keeping, is having that disease going to hurt you and giving you this pill going to extend your life or help you? And so that it is really that simple. It comes down to sometimes it comes down to do you does the person want to live or don't they, not the quality of life they're gonna have while they're living.

COVID Births And Hospital Barriers

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Um, some, yeah, some doctors will have more of that conversation. Some of them understand more, whether it be by experience or the population that they serve. But a lot of um clinicians, they they're doing process of elimination to help you. Like it's all process of elimination. Like Western medicine is a little different unless you're seeing like an integrated medical professional or a functional medicine doctor. They are treating your symptoms, they're not looking for the root cause. And that's that's that's hard. So, and I uh to go back to maternal health, right? Third and fourth pregnancy, the hardest pregnancy ever. The hardest pregnancies ever. I was on bed rest, I couldn't move, I couldn't, yo. So I'm sick. I mean, I'm sick, I'm sick, throwing up that, that, that number three, she was just like this in my belly, just a big ball, just just big, okay. The thickness was it was thickening, okay.

Precipitous Labor And Being Dismissed

SPEAKER_02 18:12

It was just there. She was thick. She was just thick, she's still thick, okay? Now she was sitting on all types of organs and everything, but um that time, uh, and I I'm not afraid to share this. If you guys get sensitive about stuff, then just FYI might want to pause or think about how you want to approach this next part. But um, I had a shortened cervix. My cervix was shortening. Um, I don't think that's sensitive to talk about, but maybe it triggers some people. But my cervix was shortening. And so what happened with that is I had to go to the doctor about every two days to get something called fibronectin checked. It'll let you know if your sac has been penetrated and they need to send you to the hospital. Like, are you gonna go into premature labor right now? Oh, and I was working the whole time with my computer on my lap. My husband brought my uh bed down into the liver room. So you can have access to everything, so I could get to the kitchen because he still had to work, so I could get to the kitchen, so I get to, you know, everything downstairs, um, let the kids in from school, you know, the basic stuff. But um I made it through. Like it was by the grace of God. I don't know how I worked out as long as I did. I I was stressed out. Then it was my husband's first, he ain't know what he was doing. We would yo, our marriage was stressed, our person, my identity was stressed. I gained so much weight, I couldn't move if I wanted to, really. Roll over. But that one was hard. That pregnancy was so hard. I couldn't smell food. I I I had to eat, like, I ate oranges. That was my thing. I ate oranges and salads. I couldn't

VBAC Options And Missed Informed Consent

SPEAKER_02 20:05

cook for my husband, I couldn't cook for myself. Anytime I smelled something, it just like I everything was a trigger. Everything was a trigger. Now they have medication for that.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

Yeah. They do.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

But I had to tough it out. And I told my husband beforehand, I said, I don't have good pregnancies. And what he experienced with me was twice as hard as the other ones. Like with Nia, of course, I had that issue, but it was just ten times hard. Like, I couldn't do for myself. I had to worry about Nia when I was pregnant with her, but when they owned me, I had to worry about me and her. Like I had to, it was so, it was disgustingly hard. But we got through it, and the same thing with DJ. Damn. DJ That last one. I had my last two during COVID. The way I had to talk to these people for them to understand.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

And when you're in labor, there's no calm me down. There's nothing. I don't know what it feels like.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

But there's no calm me down. So you had all of yours were planned C-section.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

So this is the thing. So I guess they did screw me over, right? My first one, the duty wasn't a planned C-section. He just wouldn't move. So when I went to go have Jalen, they never offered me the option to push Jalen out.

Midwives, Doulas, And Birth Plans

SPEAKER_03 21:35

They just said Because you had a previous C out. Because I had a previous C-section. But being so young, what I learned is because I was so young, when I had Jalen, I was only 19. I still had an opportunity to push him out because they are so close in age. My body didn't heal all the way for the scar tissue to build up or anything. So I still had a chance to have something called a V back, something that is called where after you Your first C section, you can put you have an option to push the second one out. Now, after the third C section, after that second C section, there's no coming back really from that. There is, because there's the God. But I'm not ever, I'm not ever gonna risk my life or my kids' life. You get what I'm saying? Like so, but I did learn that. When I had Tyler, the doctor said, Did you ever have a did you ever choose to have a second C-section? Were you asked to have a C sec a second C-section, or did they tell you? He was a she was a midwife. And I said, They told me I had to have a C section, and she was like, You didn't.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

So that's very common.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Yes, and it's very common for us.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah, because we don't know. We don't know. And and I I listen, I love a good midwife. I think it is so important to have one. I think it's so important to have a birth plan. I think it's important for you and your spouse, or even just you, if it's just you to go do the class, all of that.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

So that's why, and that that to go into that, like that's why it's important to have, if you could go back in time, it's important to those moments are so important to go through that, have your kids with the right person and just have all of those moments, the midwife,

Insurance Gaps And Quality Of Care

SPEAKER_03 23:16

the classes, all of that. That's important to have that other opinion sitting there, you know, like help guide you, guide you, help guide you, help you.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Because the truth is, you know, back in the day, regardless of what was happening out in them fields, um, there were midwives. There were people to help guide you through the whole process. Because when we're giving birth, that is the closest we are to death.

SPEAKER_03 23:44

To death. That and a tooth ache. I mean, you ain't never lying.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

But depending on which one it affects other parts of your body. What? Hand and head. Yeah, I'm you are crazy. But yeah, the I think I think it's important. Have a dual law, something, something to kind of help you through if if you can. Um, we can't always rely on the words of our our parents. Because I didn't know. Yeah, because I think there's a gap. Listen, I don't know what happened between our grandparents and our parents, but some of the information just didn't get filtered down properly. It just didn't happen.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Yeah, because when I was gonna get my first C-section, my mom won't come over to me talking about, they about to cut you up, up and down, just like you did me. I was like, what? Oh God. She just knew they were gonna cut me like this. And my um my uh doctor came in and she was like, No, we're not. We're gonna give her a small incision. And at that time, shout out to Dr. Huggins. She was a black doctor, and very great, very great. Like she's the one, she wanted me to push him out. She wanted me to try. She just wouldn't. He was down there, but his shoulders were just so

Fair Treatment And Systemic Stereotypes

SPEAKER_03 25:05

broad, he couldn't do anything. Um, but then here it goes again with this whole the pharmacy world, the insurance world. When my insurance dropped, I had to go on to the New Jersey steak plan. So that's when I got some of the worst, the bot, the the physicians that really don't care sometimes. You get what I'm saying? I'm just another number, another paycheck in there, another young statistic, another young black girl that then got pregnant again. That's all they don't care. So I didn't have that guidance. But Dr. Huggins, she was on it from step. I know, because it was the biggest thing in there. All the other babies, they said all the other babies was crying while they were getting baths, and uh Judy was just chilling. Big, just big in here before just big, just in there chilling. He said this again. For real. But so I did have, I had an awesome black doctor. Um, I did, OB. I had an awesome black doctor. She's retired now, and then when I had to get off my mom's insurance, I had to go to the state insurance.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Right. I had my first two, um, I had the same OBGYN up until halfway through Naomi's pregnancy when I moved down here. Um he was a white guy, very straightforward. Like, if you're gonna just be straightforward with me, let me know. But I was with him from like 16 to 33. Yeah, so he he knew me, he understood, um, there was a respect there. Um, my sister had the same one too, so we were just like, you know, develop relationship with him. Um now he was straight to the point, old school. He wasn't really trying to, he tells you what it is and you make the decision. Yeah, you better do your research. Um,

Final Advice: Research And Advocacy

SPEAKER_02 27:00

but when I moved down here, I had a black doctor deliver Naomi and DJ. She was great. But my issues weren't with her. My issues were everyone up to her.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

The nurses.

SPEAKER_02 27:14

Like when it came to COVID, granted, we were trying to navigate a system that was not used to such a pandemic. Like this was something new. But I'm in labor and my husband can't be there. You know what I'm saying? This is the day I went into labor, girl, is the day that they they called the evening where they said six feet apart. The next morning, nobody was even wearing masks yet.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

At that time, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:45

Yeah, they just was like six six feet apart. We're in the middle of closing on our house. I go into labor. I'm in the hospital, Dom is trying to sign a paper. It was a mess. It was a mess. But anyway, we get there. I'm screaming. I have something called a precipitous pregnancy. Meaning, if I'm telling you I'm in labor, this baby is gonna pop out within 45 minutes or an hour, and that's what happened. So I'm at the window. I was there the night before or something. I was going to the darn hospital twice a week anyway to get the fiber and yeah. The hard part is that um where I was going was on a different part of the hospital. Yeah. Um, and the labor and delivery emergency room, they did have a special, yeah. I had to go to a specialty hospital, but these people weren't used to me. I scream so loud, because one thing I'm gonna, I don't give a you can say damn. I don't give a hoot and nanny. She don't give a damn. If it listen, if I need help, you gonna hear me. I scream so damn loud. Jesus! Because if you ain't gonna help me here. Exactly. Let me tell you. So this black nurse ran up to the front. I think she was trying to figure out what was going on. It's just like, oh, she was here yesterday, get her in the back of her bag, have her paperwork, I have her stuff. Like they we were already trying to prepare, right? So they they had everything. They knew that I was about to go into labor. My um my my cervix was already shortened, but I wasn't dilated. That's why they sent me home. I wasn't dilating, which is a crazy situation given that my cervix was shortened. Um, but so I went home, came back, had to go through all of that unnecessary stuff. As soon as I get back, um, they they asked me, oh, do you want epidural? Do you want epidural? Yes, I did. Um. Yeah, give it to me now because this baby had to come out. Give me Epidural. Girl, I I ain't feel that Epidural. Well, all my kids, but I'm still gonna try, right? That epidural came five minutes later than the baby out. So the epidural didn't kick in with none of my pregnancies. And I screamed the whole. I one of the nurses came in there and was looking at me sideways, like, do you gotta do all that? Yes. Yes, I do when I did. And so Naomi popped out. Now, my um, my OB, she uh worked with me with Naomi. She had olive oil that she she she used all natural remedies. She used olive oil on me and all that. When I tell you that baby popped out, somebody might need to be on the other end to catch her. Like right into the doctor's eyes. Like she just popped out. Yeah, yeah, too much there. She put olive oil there, poop. Yeah, she was there. See the last one, mm-mm. Mm-mm-mm. I screamed, I said, this baby about to come out. Soon he's about to come out, he turned, he flips.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Of course he would.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Of course.

SPEAKER_03 31:00

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

He I don't know if he just wanted to stay in there longer or he was dancing. I don't know. He flips. We thought it was going, it was gonna be catastrophic, catastrophic, but um he ended up they the doctor had to reach in there and turn him around and pull him out. I can think about it now. Again, Epidural didn't kick in. Imagine somebody reaching into your body. My husband said he wasn't sure I was gonna make it. I wasn't sure I was gonna make it.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

So guys, we've heard her story. What are some of your and okay, we're talking about black maternal health. So in this episode, we want to hear from our black women. We want to hear your stories, we want to hear not just negative stories, we want to hear the good, the pros and the cons of being a black woman having a baby in the United States of America.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

And yeah, and being overlooked, because one thing I didn't mention with Nia, with my second pregnancy, the one with the Arsa, the heart abnormality. I was in that waiting room telling them that she was about to come. I was sitting like this in the um, in the wheelchair. I said, the lady was like, Well, we gotta get all your information.

SPEAKER_03 32:22

Oh, I can't see it.

SPEAKER_02 32:23

I said, I sent it to you. We did the whole process. I'm screaming, I said, This baby is about to come. I have no more words for you. Look me up, put me in that bed now, or else we're gonna have a bigger problem because I'm gonna call all the administration. You don't know me, you don't know who I know, you don't know nothing. Get me back there right now. I'm not playing with you. That's the best about putting it in straitjacket because I'm not playing with you. Because that's how I felt. Like 20 minutes later, Nia came out. I was about to have a baby in the in the waiting area.

SPEAKER_03 32:53

And I worked um on the labor and delivery floor before, and I seen things. Right. Yeah. I seen the treatment. And especially when you're young, or if you look younger than you are. Yeah, uh-huh. And I was young working on labor and delivery. So, yeah, they don't be treating us right all the time. We all deserve fair treatment. If you treat me good, I first of all, if you are in the healthcare field, you have to you have to be in there because that's your passion, right? You sign up to serve the community, regardless of the ignorance, the you know what I mean, the if they're not um as knowledgeable as you are, like you signed up to do that. And if you can't give your all to these people like you signed up to do, like you went to school to do, you need to find a new career. Because it's not fair. And maybe this is just me living in this fairy tale world sometimes, because I know this isn't how the world is, but what gives you guys, gives people the right to look at me and say, I don't want to help her because she's a black girl. You know, like I just don't understand. Like, I probably die at 130 years old, never understanding what makes y'all think, oh, I'm just not, I'm just gonna mistreat that boy because he's black. That boy ain't did nothing to you. That child has done nothing to you. I just don't understand it.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

But stereotypes, they done put us all in a bucket. Is that who we were talking about in that other episode about men pumping all women together? Yes, you know, it's in every area, and we just gotta kind of show show people different, tell people different. Um sometimes you get sick of it. But that's why I feel like that's why I chose the the feel I chose. I'm just trying to navigate it differently now. Yeah, because it's just like I'm I'm trying to do what I can from the inside. Because we gotta show up, yeah, and and we as people deserve better. Everyone deserves access, everyone deserves fair treatment, right?

SPEAKER_03 34:57

But we as people, we for some reason, we always have to show up 10 times more than the average person. So yeah, that's what I got.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

All right, y'all.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Listen, y'all know all my business now. Y'all know her cervic short.

SPEAKER_02 35:18

Y'all know all of the things. It's sure, y'all. These babies just don't was they in. Right, it's short. They would talk about trying to so be a bad can we just wait.

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Right. So, yeah, I'm just gonna leave y'all with do your research. If they give you a big word, astronomic tropical, langorial. That's the word, find out what it means. Please find out what it means before you just sign on a dotted line that you agree to whatever this procedure is while you're pregnant.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

Yeah, if you're able to information.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

Yes. And we and and the thing is we have access to the information. If you don't know anybody, you know chat, you know Google. There you go. So, yeah, that's what I'm gonna leave y'all with. What you got for them. She left y'all with a lot too. I already did, right.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

But them birth plans, or listen, go online, get make your own self one if you have to. Have a partner in this, whether it don't have to be the person, but you need an advocate. Anytime you're dealing with any type of health issue, crisis, whatever, have an advocate. Make sure you're honest with that person who's advocating for you too. I think that's very important. Let them know, like make sure somebody you really trust. Yeah, somebody you trust. Let them know what's going on. Because if you're ever in a position where you can't speak for yourself and the pain is just that hard, you need somebody to fight for you. Somebody who's gonna have your best interest in mind. That's important.