Shay Dunn, with her husband Riante Dunn, play with their four children in the backyard of their home in Montgomery on July 10, 2023. After having a bad birthing experience, Dunn decided to give birth at home aided by a midwife who shared her racial identity and a family connection.The room was sterile, cold. Guarded only by a curtain to maintain a semblance of privacy and a thin hospital gown, she sat waiting for the procedure that would remove the remaining pregnancy tissue.
, a national conversation has been sparked once again over America’s Black maternal mortality rate, the Black community’s mistrust of the medical field and the disproportionate effect on Black women.,” the issue is laid plain: Black maternal health-care conditions remain dismal despite years of criticism, Black health-care officials say.
The birth center is being designed, she said, to reflect the South Shore community in which it will be located. Despite frequent social media updates from @dailywithshay on Instagram, her pregnancies weren’t always picture perfect. Throughout her third, she recalled experiencing discrimination and disregard from her health-care providers — culminating with a bad reaction to an epidural to which she says doctors didn’t sufficiently respond.
Knowing that there’s a disparity in treatment for Black mothers in the U.S., Dunn decided to take care into her own hands when she became pregnant with her fourth child. She chose to give birth in the comfort of her own home aided by a midwife who shared her racial identity and a family connection. Outside of the small screen, Woods cares for Black mothers in the delivery room, showing up as a listener and an ally.
“I’m not in the birth space at all. But the death rate that Black women have, after giving birth or during childbirth, I believe, is directly tied to the systemic negligence that Black women experience,” she said. A lack of access to pharmacies, for example, makes it difficult for patients to get prescriptions, while food deserts mean healthy, fresh food is often out of reach.
Regardless of these signs of progress, Jones notes that the question of Black maternal mortality isn’t solely an issue of class. It cannot be boiled down to a debate on transportation, location or Medicaid versus private insurance. This, at its core, is a question of race, Jones said.“An African American woman like myself, with a degree, is more likely to pregnancy-related medical death than her white counterparts with a high school education,” Jones said.