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accessHealthNews.net
January 2022
Volume 8 | Issue No. 53
A
new webinar series highlights how failing
to address the historical exploitation and
oppression of Black women, girls, and gender
expansive people directly drives higher rates of
deaths and near deaths. "The Intersection of
Misogynoir, Obstetric Racism, and HIV," a three-
part series featuring speaker Karen A. Scott,
MD, MPH, FACOG, identifies how structural and
societal power imbalances not only destroy
self-worth but in doing so, negatively impact
physical health.
Dr. Scott is the chief Black feminist physician
scientist, founding CEO, and owner of Birthing
Cultural Rigor, LLC. Over the last 12 months,
she acted as maternal quality improvement
expert for the Black Mamas Matter Alliance,
where she continued to learn how negative
self-image and societal perceptions of Black
women especially have helped create gaps in
equitable sexual and reproductive health care.
Throughout the series, Dr. Scott offers a
deep dive into the history of Black women's
reproductive and sexual health care and
the role structures, systems, and social
determinants of health play in preventing
equitable care. "We as Black women, girls,
and gender expansive people are not
pathologically designed to die or nearly
die from sex, reproduction, pregnancy, or
childbirth," Dr. Scott said. "We must always
trace back to the origins, which always go
back to slavery."
THE TREATMENT OF BLACK MOTHERS AND
BIRTHING PEOPLE
Part one of the series, "From Slavery to
Sovereignty: Reclaiming our Time, Narratives,
Bodies, Lives, Families, and Futures," explored
how Black mothers and birthing bodies, as well
as midwives and doulas, have been deemed
unfit and in need of saving. The experience
of one doula which she shared deemed the
hospital a place that continues colonization of
Black bodies, wombs, and breaths.
The history of the medical industrial complex
and the relationships between slave owners
and medical practitioners to expand the slave
economy and labor force directly impacts the
disparate health care we see towards Black
women and birthing people today. Dr. Scott
encourages people to be especially curious
about the role of white men OBGYNs and
white women midwives within the context of
controlling and eliminating Black bodies and
births.
"All HIV risk among Black women and people is not the result
of individual behavioral risk. Even when the sexual behaviors
are equal, the impact, the outcome, and experiences are
unequal and inequitable."
