Why Black Women Are Rejecting Hospitals in Search of Better Births
“We’re talking about people who are at greater risk of experiencing racism, implicit bias, being marginalized in the health care setting,” said Rachel Hardeman, who researches reproductive health equity at the University of Minnesota. “There’s more of a need for people to be able to cultivate a space that feels good and feels safe for them. There are fewer opportunities to see that happen in a more traditional health care setting, and that’s problematic.”
This also influenced Laneta Lafayette’s choice to have her first child at the Birth Center. “I wanted to feel more in control or informed,” she said, “like I could identify with my birth workers in the same way that my grandmother was born with midwives in the South. It was this community experience where everyone rallied together as a part of the culture to guide this mother through her birth.”
Ms. Lafayette said it was important to her that women of color be part of her care. “I was just terrified of not being able to be heard and seen by my birthing team,” she said. “I liked that I was surrounded by Black women. That was the most comforting thing, like being in a womb of my own.”
Though Ms. Lafayette was eventually transferred to a hospital, she appreciated her time spent laboring in the Birth Center. While taking a shower there, she said, “I could see my reflection in the mirror. I just looked at myself and I was like: ‘Oh, my God, this is amazing. I’m beautiful, I’m giving birth.’ I think I’ll always remember that reflection of myself.”
(Written and photographed for The New York Times with support from the Magnum Foundation.)