2nd Edition
Birthing Justice Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth
The second edition of this pathbreaking, widely taught book offers six new chapters, on breastfeeding and Black infant health; Black birthing during COVID; Black doulas rethinking birthing practices; the recent buildup of a US national movement; childbirth in Zanzibar; and expanding the global movement for sexual and reproductive well-being. Other chapters are updated throughout. Birthing Justice puts Black women’s voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternal care system. It foregrounds Black women’s agency in the birth justice movement. First published in 2016, Birthing Justice is a seminal text for those interested in maternal healthcare, reproductive justice, health equity, and intersectional racial justice, especially in courses on gender studies, Black studies, public health, and training programs for midwives and OB/GYNs. Additional resources and a reading group guide are available at www.blackwomenbirthingjustice.com.
Introduction: Beyond Coercion and Malign Neglect: Black Women and the Struggle for Birth Justice
JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH
SECTION I Birthing Histories
1 Queen Elizabeth Perry Turner: "Granny Midwife," 1931–1
DARLINE TURNER
2 Regulating Childbirth: Physicians and Granny Midwives in South Carolina
ALICIA D. BONAPARTE
3 Speak Their Names: The Power of Sankofa to Reclaim Black Midwifery
MICHELLE L. DREW
SECTION II Beyond Medical Versus Natural: Redefining Birth Injustice
4 An Abolitionist Mama Speaks: On Natural Birth and Miscarriage
VIVIANE SALEH-HANNA
5 Mothering: A Post-C-section Journey
JACINDA TOWNSEND
6 Confessions of a Black Pregnant Dad
SYRUS MARCUS WARE
7 Reframing Breastfeeding as Critical to Black Maternal and Infant Health
KIMBERLY SEALS ALLERS
8 Birth Justice and Population Control
LORETTA J. ROSS
9 Beyond Silence and Stigma: Pregnancy and HIV for Black Women in Canada
MARVELOUS MUCHENJE AND VICTORIA LOGAN KENNEDY
10 What I Carry: A Story of Love and Loss
IRIS JACOB
11 Sheltering in Community: Reimagining Black Birth during the COVID-19 Pandemic
JENNIFER ELYSE JAMES, ALEXUS ROANE, AND JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH
12 Images from the Safe Motherhood Quilt
SECTION III Changing Lives, One Birth at a Time
13 This Is How We Fight!: Finding My Power and Protecting the Peace of Black Mothers in a Pandemic
TANEFER CAMARA
14 Birthing Sexual Freedom and Healing: A Survivor-Mother’s Birth Story
BIANY PÉREZ
15 Birth as Battle Cry: A Doula’s Journey from Home to Hospital
GINA MARIELA RODRÍGUEZ
16 Sister Midwife: Nurturing and Reflecting Black Womanhood in an Urban Hospital
STEPHANIE ETIENNE
17 WAJAMAMA: Transforming Childbirth in Zanzibar through Holistic Midwifery Care
NAFISA JIDDAWI
18 A Love Letter to My Daughter: Love as a Political Act
HAILE ESHE COLE
19 New Visions in Birth, Intimacy, Kinship, and Sisterly
Partnerships
SHANNON GIBNEY AND VALERIE DEUS
20 I Am My Hermana’s Keeper: Reclaiming Afro-Indigenous Ancestral Wisdom as a Doula
GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ
21 The First Cut Is the Deepest: A Mother-Daughter Conversation about Birth, Justice, Healing, and Love
PAULINE ANN MCKENZIE-DAY AND ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS
SECTION IV Taking Back Our Power: Organizing for Birth Justice
22 Unexpected Allies: Obstetrician Activism, VBACs, and the Birth Justice Movement
CHRIST-ANN MAGLOIRE AND JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH
23 Becoming an Outsider-Within: Jennie Joseph’s Activism in Florida Midwifery
ALICIA D. BONAPARTE AND JENNIE JOSEPH
24 Embodied Abolition: Prisons, Pregnancy, and the Struggle for Birth Justice
PRISCILLA A. OCEN AND JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH
25 Lifting Up Black Doulas: Black Women Organizing to Reimagine Birthwork
LINDA JONES, SAYIDA PEPRAH-WILSON, AND MONICA R. MCLEMORE
26 Black Mamas Matter: How Black Women Built a Global Movement for Black Maternal Health, Rights, and Justice
ELIZABETH DAWES GAY
27 Expanding a Transnational Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Wellbeing
JOIA CREAR-PERRY, ANA BARRETO, KELLY DAVIS, AND AJA CLARK
Biography
Alicia D. Bonaparte is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College and is a medical sociologist whose research examines the gendered social hierarchy within US medicine and the intersection of race and gender in healthcare practices and disparities. She contributed to The Routledge Companion to Motherhood and Black Feminist Sociology (also published by Routledge) and is completing her book manuscript, Labors of Birthing Work: The Persecution and Prosecution of Granny Midwives, 1900–1940.
Julia Chinyere Oparah ("Chinyere") is a social justice educator, activist scholar, and transformational leader. She is Professor and Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of San Francisco and Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at Mills College. Chinyere is co-founder of Black Women Birthing Justice. She is author and editor of numerous publications, including Battling Over Birth, Birthing Justice (first edition), Global Lockdown: Race, Gender and the Prison-Industrial Complex, Activist Scholarship, and Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. She lives in Oakland, California, with her partner and daughter.