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accessHealthNews.net
June 2024
Volume 10 | Issue No. 85
"During the midst of my training to be-
come a doula and a lactation educator, I
started learning about birth work in gener-
al, how it wasn't this field of work that up-
per-middle-class white women use to bring
their babies into the world. I learned that it
was something that we have been doing
since we came from the continent. Know-
ing that lineage that's been passed down
from birth worker to birth worker, it started
to feel like a cultural responsibility."
These words from William Moore, CPE, a
doula and race and health equity ad-
ministrator, kicked off a recent symposium
by the Black Women's Health Imperative
(BWHI). Moore, William Rowe, MS, a lacta-
tion educator with BWHI, and Mohamed
Kamara, MBA, CEO of InovCares.com,
were the three speakers on the topic of
Black men's role in the movement for
reproductive justice and birth equity.
Together, the speakers shared their
experiences as professionals and as family
members participating in the process of
childbirth.
Rowe's story of becoming part of the
movement to end the Black maternal
mortality gap began with taking a college
course in maternal and infant nutrition,
leading him to notice the glaring disparities
in the data surrounding maternal and in-
fant health and mortality. "I only saw that,
even in the imagery and the context and
the studies, everything was around white
women," Rowe said. "The little knowledge
that was available on Black birthing wom-
en and birthing people, it was all around
how they are 'missing the mark.'" Not only
was the problem given precious little at-
tention in the form of research and investi-
gations, but it was also naturally framed in
a racist context as a failure on the part of
the Black birthing people rather than the
limited education about pregnancy and
birth that was accessible for them. Despite
the field of maternal and infant health
being laden with red tape for men, and
especially Black men, Rowe decided to
focus his efforts on addressing the issues he
had noticed.
For Kamara, it was a dear family matter.
"My sister was delivering her fourth child
in Sierra Leone when she suddenly passed
on. It was a hemorrhage. Rushed to the
hospital, bleeding profusely.
"Science does show that a lot of times men go through these
hormonal changes as well while their partners are in the midst of
the birth process. They also experience postpartum depression."
READ MORE
- William Moore, CPE,
a doula and race and health equity administrator
