Radical Doula

There has been a lot of news lately that keeps tying back to the thread I started a while back, about how midwifery can truly be accessible to communities of color.

First, last week we had a big media splash with new census data that shows the majority of babies being born in the US today are not white. This has been true for quite some time in certain parts of the country, like California, but now it’s a national fact. Demographers have been predicting for a long time that we’re heading in this direction, so it’s not a surprise. But it does make for good headlines, and stirs the pot of zenophobia and racist panic.

It also makes extremely clear how important it is that we focus on the needs of communities of color when it comes to maternal health. It’s no longer about an interest group! It’s no longer about the minority! Dealing with race-based health disparities in maternal health is actually about the majority of births. Wow.

Feels like a game-changer to me.

Unfortunately for midwives and birth activists, women of color are still a very small minority of those accessing out of hospital birth. A bigger slice is likely accessing in hospital midwifery care (anyone know those stats?) but we’ve got a long way to go.

Then, yesterday, the news that the Midwives of Color contingent of MANA, Midwives Alliance of North America, resigned in protest. Still waiting to see a statement from MOC about what prompted this move, but MANA already acknowledged it on their facebook page:

It is with heavy hearts that the Midwives Alliance today received the resignation of several key members of the MANA Midwives of Color (MOC) Section, including the Chair. MANA is fully aware of its history of privilege and the issues related to cultural and systemic hierarchies in decision-making. We are committed to working towards a structural change in the way our organization operates in light of the repeated failures to address the needs of our midwives of color. We recognize the disproportionate impact of perinatal disparities and poor outcomes for women, infants and communities of color. MANA has an ongoing responsibility to address these issues in order to fulfill our mission of providing a professional organization for all midwives.

I’m not involved in MANA, I’m not a midwife, I haven’t talked to anyone from the MOC. (I did attend a MANA conference back in 2005/2006 in Mexico City). I don’t know the specifics of what went down, what prompted this major move.

What I do know is this: We have to center the needs of communities of color in maternal health. The disparities alone should have been enough of a reason. Black women are FOUR times more likely to die during childbirth than white women. FOUR TIMES. But of course, that’s how racism works.It perpetuates systems of oppression by marginalizing the needs of those most in need.

But now we’re no longer the minority. Now, the health of the nation very literally depends on our ability to tackle race-based health disparities, particularly in maternal health.

I personally believe that the midwifery model of care is a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to answering the problem of race-based maternal health disparities. And a big piece of the puzzle of making midwifery care accessible in communities of color? Midwives of color.

So I sincerely hope that MANA, or whatever other governing bodies exist in the midwifery world, can get their priorities straight, and do what work needs to be done.

The numbers don’t lie–and they point in a clear direction. We need to be putting all of our attention on race-based maternal health disparities. All of it. It’s a concern of the majority now.