Description
--Since the book窶冱 initial publication, the crisis in Black maternal health has garnered national attention, due to social media and grassroots campaigns and successful legislative activism by the national Black Mamas Matter Alliance, by President-elect Kamala Harris, and others.
--Today, as the movement gains momentum, birth justice is part of a larger conversation about pregnant people窶冱 right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy, and to choose when, where, how, and with whom to birth窶覇specially in the wake of Trump era rollbacks.
--The book is prized in the classroom due to its accessibility, gripping narratives, and innovation in policy and practice.
--The book is written in an engaging style that appeals to a lay audience. Women窶冱 stories and personal testimonies provide an accessible entry point, and the scholarly pieces are written in non-jargonistic language. Pregnant people buy many books on what to expect in their pregnancy and birth, and how to have a positive birth experience. Black women in particular are looking for Black perspectives within this genre.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Beyond Coercion and Malign Neglect: Black Women and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Julia Chinyere Oparah with Black Women Birthing Justice
Section I: Birthing Histories
- Queen Elizabeth Perry Turner: "Granny Midwife," 1931-1956 by Darline Turner
- Regulating Childbirth: Physicians and Granny Midwives in South Carolina by Alicia D. Bonaparte
- Speak Their Names: The Power of Sankofa to Reclaim Black Midwifery by Michelle Drew
- An Abolitionist Mama Speaks: On Natural Birth and Miscarriage by Viviane Saleh-Hanna
- Mothering: A Post-C-Section Journey by Jacinda Townsend
- Confessions of a Black Pregnant Dad by Syrus Marcus Ware
- Reclaiming Breastfeeding and Protecting Black Infant Health by Kimberly Allers Seale
- Birth Justice and Population Control by Loretta J. Ross
- Beyond Silence and Stigma: Pregnancy and HIV for Black Women in Canada by Marvelous Muchenje and Victoria Logan Kennedy
- What I Carry: A Story of Love and Loss by Iris Jacob
- Sheltering in Community: Re-imagining Black birth during the COVID-19 pandemic by Jennifer A. James, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Alexus Roane
- Images from the Safe Motherhood Quilt
- This is How we Fight: Black Mamas and Breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic by TaNefer L. Camara
- Birthing Sexual Freedom and Healing: A Survivor Mother's Birth Story by Biany Pérez
- Birth as Battle Cry: A Doula's Journey from Home to Hospital by Gina Mariela Rodríguez
- Sister Midwife: Nurturing and Reflecting Black Womanhood in an Urban Hospital by Stephanie Etienne
- WAJAMAMA: Transforming Childbirth in Zanzibar through Holistic Midwifery Care by Nafisa Jiddawi
- A Love Letter to My Daughter: Love as a Political Act by Haile Eshe Cole
- New Visions in Birth, Intimacy, Kinship, and Sisterly Partnerships by Shannon Gibney and Valerie Deus
- I Am My Hermana's Keeper: Reclaiming Afro-Indigenous Ancestral Wisdom as a Doula by Griselda Rodriguez
- The First Cut Is the Deepest: A Mother-Daughter Conversation about Birth, Justice, Healing, and Love by Pauline Ann McKenzie-Day and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
- Unexpected Allies: Obstetrician Activism, VBACs, and the Birth Justice Movement by Christ-Ann Magloire and Julia Chinyere Oparah
- Becoming an Outsider-Within: Jennie Joseph's Activism in Florida Midwifery by Alicia D. Bonaparte and Jennie Joseph
- Embodied Abolitionism: Prisons, Pregnancy, and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Priscilla A. Ocen and Julia Chinyere Oparah
- Lifting Up Black Doulas: Black Women Organizing to Reimagine Birthwork by Linda Jones, Monica R. McLemore and Sayida Peprah-Wilson
- Black Mamas Matter: How Black Women Built a National Movement for Black Maternal Health, Rights and Justice by Elizabeth Dawes Gay
- Expanding a Transnational Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Wellbeing by Joia Crear-Perry, Kelly Davis, Ana Barreto, and Aja Clark
Section II: Beyond Medical versus Natural: Redefining Birth Injustice
Section III: Changing Lives, One Birth at a Time
Section IV: Taking Back Our Power: Organizing for Birth Justice
