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CHOICES IN CHILDBIRTH

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ESSENTIAL CONVERSATIONS
FOR PREGNANCY, BIRTH AND BEYOND

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CENTERING HUMANITY:
THE BLACK BIRTH EXPERIENCE

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CHANEL: So being a Black
birthing person, a Black woman,

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and seeing the perceptions of how
we're viewed as individuals, right,

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so I can't remove myself

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as a Black woman
who sits before you right now

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from everything else
that happens to me in my life, right?

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And I can distinctly remember
at the age of 16

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having my first real,
major discrimination happened.

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TOO OFTEN, BLACK BIRTHING PEOPLE
ARE NOT LISTENED TO,

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AND THEIR CONCERNS ARE IGNORED.

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RACISM IS A FACTOR
IN POOR HEALTH OUTCOMES.

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DOULAS CAN HELP PEOPLE ADVOCATE
FOR WHAT THEY NEED.

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THIS CAN HELP YOU HAVE A HEALTHY
PREGNANCY AND BIRTH.

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Even as a Black doula coming in
and supporting clients of color,

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I'm oftentimes not listened to.

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So, just based on that,
I was like, something has to change.

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And so, one day, I put a call out
on the Listserv to birth workers.

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Is there anybody who wants to work
with this population?

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Like, low income, women of color,
those who are undocumented,

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those who, like, are looking
to center humanity and folks.

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And about 23 doulas
showed up to my house.

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It's a beautiful thing
because we all had the same thing.

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We were seeing something
that we wanted to address in real time,

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which was the fact that

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people were being dehumanized
within their birthing experiences,

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and they still continue to be.

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CYNTHIA: My first time,
it was just my husband, you know,

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who was very supportive,

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and I had a plan,
or I was told to have a plan.

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Right.

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But I had three different doctors
the first experience

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because people were switching around.

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I could never, like ...
I didn't build any type of relationship.

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And so even if, you know,
what plan I had,

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it was conveyed to, you know,
different people.

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Things lost in translation.

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TAYO: Exactly, and I think you learn
that the tough way the first time,

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that if you abandon ship,

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everybody else is right behind you,
like, we in the water.

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CHRISSIE: A lot of people don't know
what a doula does or who a doula is,

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and the resources
are not out there for doulas.

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So, I think that
that could be a major change,

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if it was like out there for people
to know and learn the benefits of it.

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KARIE: We talked about
getting back into the community.

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So, not only having the resources
in the community,

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you also have to have the education.

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You have to educate the community
on what a doula is, what they do,

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what services they provide,
as well as what a midwife does.

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Because we also have that issue,
myself being a midwife.

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And, you know,
there's always this kind of old thought

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that, "Oh, they used to do that
in homes down south."

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We do them in homes up here too.

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We also do them in hospitals
and in birth centers.

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So, expanding their knowledge about
who we are and what we do is important.

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HOSPITALS WITH MIDWIVES

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HAVE LOWER C-SECTION RATES
AND BETTER BIRTH OUTCOMES.

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TAYO: If we are teaching our families
to advocate for themselves,

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to be educated, to ask questions
and to trust in themselves,

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they have to be able to interact
with a system that accepts them

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as people who ask questions,
as people who advocate for themselves,

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and then also making sure
that people know about them.

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How do I know
which place I want to go to?

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Which provider is good for me?

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And if we're talking about this
starting in the community,

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are people in my community
talking about who is eligible

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or who should birth at a birth center?

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Can I lean on people
who have had both positive

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and not so positive experiences
with a midwife in a hospital?

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TIKVAH: I also think another key
component is to be able to trust,

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because even though we may have
these different resources,

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can I trust that if I show up,
will you be able to support me?

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Do I have the opportunity
to make the selection?

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What if I want a midwife?
Or what if I want a doctor?

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Make the decision how I feel about it.

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KARIE: Which is why we have to center

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the Black birthing individual
and family.

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When your care is centralized to them
and then focused on them,

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things that we notice,
postpartum hemorrhages,

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and, you know, unnecessary bleeding
and procedures and stuff like that.

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If we focus on making sure
those things don't happen

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and be very proactive
as providers and doulas

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and families being educated
and knowing that can happen,

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it can carry over to the entire system.

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TAYO: Absolutely.

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It will become the norm
of how we care for patients.

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So, you'll see a drastic decrease
in those health disparities,

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not only among Black patients,
Hispanic patients,

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but then you also see it
for other ethnicities.

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TAYO: Everybody, yes.

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I'm Black in this hospital,
I don't feel safe.

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I don't feel loved and I don't feel
like I can let my guard down.

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Because I'm worried about
if my baby is going be taken from me.

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I'm worried about
if I'm going to be mistreated.

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Is my doula even going to be allowed
to be with me during this time?

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If you ask a person, are you
interested in culturally aligned care?

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They're going to be like, "What?"

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"You mean, do I want a provider
that's Black?" Yes. Yes, I do.

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CHRISSIE: When you hear people say
that they just want somebody

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that can relate to them culture-wise,

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it's more of them feeling comfort

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due to them feeling like
they are ignored or not understood.

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I think that's a lot of that,
because I hear a lot of people

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that say, "I'm looking
for a Black therapist,

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I'm looking for a Black doctor,"
what have you not.

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And it's just mainly ...
not just for the trust,

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they just feel like everybody cannot
relate to where they're coming from.

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FINDING THE RIGHT PROVIDER
FOR YOU CAN MAKE

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YOUR BIRTHING EXPERIENCE BETTER.

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CHANEL: Two years prior
to me becoming pregnant,

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I happened upon a natural birth expo
in Union Square.

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And I happened upon
a Black midwife and a doula.

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I was like, "Really?" I didn't know
Black midwives still existed.

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And she was like,
"Oh, no, we're here. See?"

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Because in my mind,
the context that I had for midwifery

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was based on something from a book
or something that you see on TV

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or something you read about in the past.

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It wasn't something that I was privy to,
you know?

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I had never heard anyone
talk about midwives in real time.

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I wasn't thinking
about becoming pregnant,

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but just in case,
I'll hold on to this stuff, so I did.

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About two years later,
I met my husband in Brooklyn.

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A couple months later, we were pregnant,
and I went to an OB-GYN of color.

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So I thought that because I had
someone who looked like me

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that was enough in terms
of the care that I wanted, right?

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We're going, we're seeing her,

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but there was just no vibe,
no energy, no connection.

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It was very sterile, the interactions.
There was no ...

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It just wasn't something
that was coming easy.

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So we were like,
"No, we need to find another provider."

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I remembered I had this information.

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I went on Myspace
and I found that midwife and the doula.

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And once I went into her care,

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it was totally different, like, totally.

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This is a Black midwife who ...

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I come out of there, she's sitting
with us for an hour, right?

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An hour, like an hour's time,

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really getting to know
who we are as individuals.

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She was like, it's more important
for me to know who you are

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so that I can be able to support you
when it comes time for your birth,

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because it's not just about
the physical stuff happening to you.

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You have to take an opportunity
to sit with someone.

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It's not just about
what's happening in their body.

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That's a reflection
of what's happening on the outside too.

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All the experiences that they've had

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since they've come into the world
from someone else.

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And you can't separate just
what's happening to someone physically

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and not see the emotional aspect of it

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and not get to know who they are
as a human being.

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To me, that's not normal.

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That's not care, you know?

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We're not robots, people are not robots.

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TIKVAH: Knowing that the numbers
that you see and you read about,

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Black women are dying at this rate,

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and you've seen that, but yet,

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I'm seeing something different
when I'm in the birth room

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and I'm looking at them
push their babies out,

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and it is amazing.

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And it's powerful.

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FOR MORE RESOURCES,

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VISIT
EVERYMOTHERCOUNTS.ORG/CHOICESINCHILDBIRTH

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EVERY MOTHER COUNTS

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