Print Books
Babylost: Racism, Survival, and the Quiet Politics of Infant Mortality, from A to Z by
The U.S. infant mortality rate is among the highest in the industrialized world, and Black babies are far more likely than white babies to die in their first year of life. Maternal mortality rates are also very high. Though the infant mortality rate overall has improved over the past century with public health interventions, racial disparities have not. Racism, poverty, lack of access to health care, and other causes of death have been identified, but not yet adequately addressed. The tragedy is twofold: it is undoubtedly tragic that babies die in their first year of life, and it is both tragic and unacceptable that most of these deaths are preventable. Despite the urgency of the problem, there has been little public discussion of infant loss. The question this book takes up is not why babies die; we already have many answers to this question. It is, rather, who cares that babies, mostly but not only Black and Native American babies, are dying before their first birthdays? More importantly, what are we willing to do about it? This book tracks social and cultural dimensions of infant death through 58 alphabetical entries, from Absence to ZIP Code. It centers women's loss and grief, while also drawing attention to dimensions of infant death not often examined. It is simultaneously a sociological study of infant death, an archive of loss and grief, and a clarion call for social change.
Call Number: HB1323.I42 U6336 2022ISBN: 9781978825949Publication Date: 2022-03-18
Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis by
"Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis reveals hard truths- powerful findings on the role of racism, coercion, inadequate prenatal care, the pressures undermining breastfeeding and the lack of access to alternatives to a broken maternal health-care system as key threads of black women's birth experiences." -Kimberly Seals Allers, MS, author, The Big Letdown "This book clearly lays out the barriers facing Black families, but it also offers solutions. I think every professional who works with parents and babies of any color should read this book." -Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE "Battling over Birth is a critical and timely resource for understanding black women's birthing experiences in the United States, a country where black women's lives-and the lives they create-are at much greater risk of death and injury than those of non-black women ... By distilling the common and diverse threads from over 100 black women, the BWBJ researchers have woven a multi-faceted tapestry that reflects what black women view as important and central to optimal birth experiences. Their recommendations for improving care and outcomes are grounded in black women's authoritative knowledge. ... This wonderful, important, necessary research by and for black women points in the direction that black women think we should go to ensure they have safe, healthy, and satisfying birth experiences and outcomes. We need to listen and act." -Christine Morton, PhD, author, Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-Emergence of Woman-Supported Birth in America Black Women Birthing Justice is a collective of African-American, African, Caribbean and multiracial women who are committed to transforming birthing experiences for black women and transfolks. Our vision is that every pregnant person should have an empowering birthing experience, free of unnecessary medical interventions and forced separation from their child. Our goals are to educate, to document birth stories and to raise awareness about birthing alternatives. We aim to challenge human rights violations, rebuild confidence in our ability to give birth, and decrease disproportionate maternal and infant mortality.
Call Number: RG961.C2 O63 2018ISBN: 9781946665119Publication Date: 2017-12-02
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America by
A tragedy is unfolding all around us and is receiving well overdue attention. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white peers. But Dr. Monique Rainford is working to better understand these disparities and do something about them. Pregnant While Black is a hopeful exploration of the issues pregnant Black women face in America.Within these pages, Dr. Rainford draws on over twenty years of experience working in obstetrics and gynecology to offer a primer on Black pregnancies and how to better care for them. She shares the successes and testimonies of Black women who have struggled during pregnancy and childbirth, anchoring the stories of these women with carefully researched facts. Despite medical advances over the last twenty years, for Black women, the overwhelming dangers of carrying and delivering children remain and it only seems to be getting worse. In Pregnant While Black, Rainford begins the work of "repairing the damage of the past" with an examination of the conditions that plague Black pregnancies. This important book carries the hopes and dreams of a generation looking to effect change, here and now.
Call Number: RG962.5.B53 R35 2023ISBN: 9781506487618Publication Date: 2023-04-11
eBooks
Marginalized Mothers, Mothering from the Margins by
This volume focuses on the ways in which mothers aremarginalized based on intersecting identities, such as immigration status,race, class, disability, sexuality, and how these women mother from the margins.Divided into three sections, this collection brings forth the voices andexperiences of mothers and highlights the institutions and laws thatmarginalize them. In the first section, mothersface barriers such as institutional constraints that block them from neededresources and the ability to mother as they see fit. In section two, contributors examine theborders of marginalized mothering - boundaries reflected through citizenship,walls, geography, dealings with intimate partners and welfare offices, or prisonbars. Readings in this section highlight mothers' efforts to transcend, resist,or even just survive experiences with borders. The final section centers on mothers that explicitly adopt motheringstrategies of resistance or explicitly use their status as mothers in theiractivism. Topics range from mothers who engage in milk sharing to mothers ofcolor whom organize against police brutality. Throughout the volume, contributors demonstrate the striking resilienceof these mothers, and their resistance in challenging the ideologies andinstitutions that marginalize them.
ISBN: 9781787564015Publication Date: 2018-10-08
Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America (eBook) by
A tragedy is unfolding all around us and is receiving well overdue attention. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white peers. But Dr. Monique Rainford is working to better understand these disparities and do something about them. Pregnant While Black is a hopeful exploration of the issues pregnant Black women face in America. Within these pages, Dr. Rainford draws on over twenty years of experience working in obstetrics and gynecology to offer a primer on Black pregnancies and how to better care for them. She shares the successes and testimonies of Black women who have struggled during pregnancy and childbirth, anchoring the stories of these women with carefully researched facts. Despite medical advances over the last twenty years, for Black women, the overwhelming dangers of carrying and delivering children remain and it only seems to be getting worse. In Pregnant While Black, Rainford begins the work of "repairing the damage of the past" with an examination of the conditions that plague Black pregnancies. This important book carries the hopes and dreams of a generation looking to effect change, here and now.
ISBN: 9781506487625Publication Date: 2023-04-11
Book Chapters
- Black Women's Reproductive Health, Justice, and COVID-19 Complications in the United States Racialized Health, COVID-19, and Religious Responses, 2022, Vol.1, p.208-214
- The Maternal Mortality Crisis in the Black Community Black Women and Public Health, 2022, p.67-80
- Mothering While Black: Strengths and Vulnerabilities in a Sociopolitical Racial Context of Structural Inequality The Routledge Companion to Motherhood, 2020, p.89-102
- Structural Racism in Black Maternal Healthcare Necessary Conversations, 2022, Chapter 6
- Systemic Influences on Outcomes in Pregnancy and Childbirth Birth Settings in America, 2020, p.113-144
- There’s Something Wrong Here: African-American Pregnant Women and Their Babies are at Greatest Risk in the USA Birthing Models on the Human Rights Frontier, 2021, p.131-144