By Mairen E. Brown
I want to be a mother. I have many reservations when it comes to having children. There are two reasons for this: fear for the lives and experiences of my future Black children, and fear for my own health while carrying and delivering a child.
Regardless of who I marry or have children with, my children will be Black. I am only fifteen, and just like other Black girls like me, I already fear for the children I do not have. I am afraid to bring a child into a world where they are often hated, unappreciated, unrecognized, and overlooked. I do not know if I can conceptualize or handle the fact that my child could be a hashtag that people use for their own performative activism.
The scariest position to be in as a Black person is that of a Black mother. I see the worry and hurt on my Black mother’s face when I am in a room with all white people, when we cannot stop in a particular area in Georgia because it could be dangerous for my Black family, or when I come home upset because of something racist a classmate said aloud. I want to be a mom. I know that already, but being a Black mother is an entirely distinct experience—an altogether different commitment.
But the most important reason is that I do not welcome death. And as a Black woman, if you want to increase your chances of dying, get pregnant. Seriously. Forty-three in 100,00 black women die during childbirth. Black women are five times more likely to die from pregnancy-related cardiomyopathy than white women. Five times. Please, allow that to sink in. The disparity in the health system makes it dangerous for Black women to have children. I mentioned earlier that I want to be a mother, and with that comes the fact that I have already had to accept all these genuine possibilities. But it should not have to be like that.
James Marion Sims. God, give me the strength to write about this “man.” Born January 25, 1813, James Marion Sims is known as the “Father of Gynecology.” He created many of the techniques and procedures performed by physicians today. This man has a past that could be dissected and debated forever. I will discuss how his work and theories contributed to the unfair medical treatment of Black women. He operated, experimented, and tested his hypotheses on Black women. But at the time, Black people were not considered people. So, let me use the correct term – chattel, human property, or enslaved people. He performed painful medical experiments on enslaved people without anesthesia or pain medication. They were awake during painful medical procedures. Meaning they experienced all the pain that comes with many of these procedures without the comfort of any kind. This experimentation contributed to the stigma that Black women can take on or handle more pain than White women, which we will address again later. The speculum, which is a tool used every day among gynecologists, was created by James Marion. But equally created by the traumatized body of a slave. Procedures used to remove vaginal fistulas were created by James Marion, and equally, by the body of Anarcha, a 17-year-old slave who had just given birth before being subject to this experimental procedure. He worked on countless slaves and would only work on a White woman after he was sure he perfected his craft. And under anesthesia, of course. He is not an animal – he did care about White woman and their pain. Black women were the animals, as James Marion Sims would have agreed.
Moving forward a few hundred years from the Sims to the present. And it is not much better. We have addressed that Black woman, just as much as Sims, founded gynecology. You would imagine that these techniques being experimented with and perfected on Black women would benefit Black women. Uh, no. This is America, remember. Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. And my question is, why? The techniques were built around Black women’s bodies! The main reason is not even scientific. The AAMC says, “Half of the white medical trainees believe such myths as Black people have thicker skin or less sensitive nerve endings than white people. An expert looks at how false notions and hidden biases fuel inadequate treatment of minorities. ” During pregnancy and childbirth, an experience that is named to be in the top 15 most painful experiences a person can be put through, not to have pain taken seriously, is more than heartbreaking or aggravating. It can indeed be fatal. This lack of trust toward Black women is why many Black women seek out OB/GYNs that are Black. And only 11% of OB/GYN doctors are Black. Just incredible.
I chose to write about this topic not to educate you, as the reader, but to shed light on the need for more education—honestly, any teaching. White people will never be able to understand the advantages and privileges they have in comparison to their Black counterparts, but they should be taught about them. Acknowledge them. Acknowledge the fact that talking about future babies is more than just the fun details like baby names and nursery themes for Black young adults, but the daunting details, as well—the statistics and percentages that affect Black women daily. The odds that most Black children are aware years before even having kids. The odds that White children may never learn about. The odds Black women must be willing to break, just as much as become. Black women are dying of misinformation. Black women are dying of a lack of believability. Black women are dying. That statement alone should be enough to make a change.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4843483/
https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/maternal-mortality/index.html
