Everyone has a birthright
to .
Before, during, and after childbirth.
It’s time to reclaim that for all, starting with Black women and birthing people.
Welcome to Birthright, a podcast about stories of joy and healing in Black birth.
In case you don’t know, Black women and birthing people are 243% more likely to die during or after childbirth, according to the CDC. In my native home, New York City, the Black maternal mortality rate is 12X that of white women. We must do better.
I believe that we must also deploy joy as a tool in the fight for birth equity. We must use positivity as a catalyzing energy for justice and as a weapon against the mainstream narrative that suggests that merely surviving birth as a Black person is an accomplishment. Nope!
We must reclaim joy, respect and positivity as a birthright.
By seeking out and exploring positive birth stories we can build confidence, find solutions and identify blind spots in our quest to make the birth experience equitable for all Black birthing bodies. Join me on this journey!
about the podcast
I’ll delve into my journalistic background to offer powerful positive birth stories, layered with research, historical context, and the voices of others who were present, to create inspiring and instructive content for Black women and birthing people, as well as for providers, hospitals, and others in the birthing ecosystem.
In this season, we’ll do two things: dissect positive Black birth stories to unearth gems of inspiration and ideas, and bring a restorative justice model to Black birth. That is, we will have episodes where we center someone who has not had a positive experience and, with the help of professionals, take them on a healing journey.
In birth as in life, to choose joy is to choose freedom. And freedom is our birthright. We must seek and display joy, not to whitewash the pain and realities of Black birth in America but as a form of resistance to counter that reality and help us chart a new path forward.
Join me on my podcast as we reclaim that birthright one story at a time.
about me
My name is Kimberly and I’m an author, speaker, maternal and infant health strategist, change agent, and all-around rabble-rouser for birth and breastfeeding equity.
I am also the founder of Irth, the first “Yelp-like” app for Black parents to find and leave reviews of Ob/Gyn’s, birthing hospitals and pediatricians. As a proud mama of two, I survived two traumatic and disappointing birth experiences with a determination to change the social and cultural landscape of birth, breastfeeding and motherhood for all.
But especially for Black women, whose birth outcomes and breastfeeding rates disproportionately lag white women and whose motherhood journeys are uniquely shaped by the lived experience of bias and systemic racism.
Let’s restore and reclaim our birthright. Together, we can!
Episodes
