So @ACNMmidwives literally attend the births of Black mamas 2:1 to our white counterparts. <10% CM/CNM are Black, probably 5% but we don’t know because it certifying body doesn’t report the demographics of the workforce in 2020 @acog knows the demographics of its workforce
Out of nearly 40 CNM/CM education programs there is 1 Black program director & those of us Black midwives who precept & mentor Black students daily hear about behaviors and actions from program faculty can be labeled as nothing other than white supremacy.
All the while being on the receiving end of the same rscist behavior from the white service directors who employ us all to often & dictate the culture of the care given to those Black mamas we all say we want to save from “the patriarchy” which is a farce. It’s Matriarchy #NameIt
when white Women proliferate the workforce of OBGYNs & midwives of every educational background. We deserve a space within an organization built on Black womens bodies where we feel safe & can drive policies that serve Black mothers & Black midwives. #GladWeTalked
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So I triggered folks yesterday with 2 tweets & as fragile white folks will they demanded to speak to the manager on my job. There’s 2 problems. 1: The manager don’t care what you think about what I say on Twitter cuz 2: I am the manager.
But for the record I said what I said.
So not only will I stand by my statements, I’ll explain Karen. The OBVIOUS point of the tweet was that it is absurd to apply causality to healthcare disparities to “race” because race is an artificial social grouping created by Europeans to justify slavery & colonization.
Not only is there no biological basis for race; in fact historically “whiteness” didn’t exist before the 17th century when European Christians had to morally reconcile the slaughter and subjugation of indigenous peoples and enslavement of Africans to build their “empires”.
Was asked to share & update the list of titles that I gifted the incoming interns (who by the way for the record resented the gift and hated me) back in 2019. I still stand by this being an essential reading list for white OBGYN residents who match into Black serving programs.
In no particular order:
The following from Professor Mother @DorothyERoberts
Killing the Black Body
Fatal Invention
Structural Competency Meets Structural Racism: Race, Politics, and the Structure of Medical Knowledge (With @JonathanMetzl)
Dear white midwives,
Nurse midwifery is the only modern American profession in the nation besides police which began with slave/Indian catcher patrols, whose existence is rooted in white supremacy: the control, elimination & replacement of the Black midwife with white nurses.
Whiteness was central to the planning, implementation, growth and marketing of the profession. This is not hyperbole this is fact. It still continues today. The 87% white workforce looks exactly like the 86% midwifery directors who determine who teaches & studies nurse midwifery.
CPMs are no more diverse and make up only a tenth of the midwifery profession. So to suggest @ACNMmidwives@MANAcommunity with their white leadership, white educators & white workforce can reduce mortality driven by 🤰🏾🤱🏽isn’t naive it’s white supremacy in action.
Wrote a little poem. Bet y’all didn’t know I was an artist. Like to here it; here it goes.
Resilience Training is for White Folks
By Michelle “Auntie Chelle” Drew
Dear HR: about that mandatory Resiliency Training:
I’m a have to say nah.
Black women don’t need to learn resilience.
We invented it in the belly of slave ships
Perfected it when we watched our lovers and babies ripped from our arms and sold off the plantation never to be seen again.
Books/articles that should be required reading for antiracism in MCH
Policing the Womb @michelebgoodwin
Medical Apartheid @haw95
Killing the Black Body & Fatal Invention by @DorothyERoberts
Medical Bondage: Race, Gender & the Origins of American Gynecology @drcooperowens
Birthing, Blackness, and the Body: Black Midwives and Experiential Continuities of Institutional Racism by @keishagoode8 or as I call it: Killing Me Softly Part 2.
A primer on the lived experience of Black birth workers in PWIs
Now why in the nurse’s note about my new pregnant patient contain only one sentence about her pregnancy outcomes but a whole paragraph that she uses marijuana; was “incarcerated” instead of the fact that she has a condition approved for medical marijuana & needed cash bail? Z60.5
Thanks for all the supportive comments. A few points.
As health professionals our job isn’t to judge patients but to help. There are important things to ask, know, do if you’re really concerned about the health and safety of a pregnant person who discloses social information:
Do you need help?
What can I/we do to get you to a safe place?
Do you know where the resources are to get help/can I help you find them.
If it doesn’t contribute to the patient getting good care why write it in their permanent medical record? Save judgement for courts & Jesus