2nd Edition

Birthing Justice Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth

Edited By Alicia D. Bonaparte, Julia Chinyere Oparah Copyright 2024
    334 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    334 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The second edition of this pathbreaking, widely taught book offers six new chapters, on breastfeeding and Black infant health; Black birthing during COVID; Black doulas rethinking birthing practices; the recent buildup of a US national movement; childbirth in Zanzibar; and expanding the global movement for sexual and reproductive well-being. Other chapters are updated throughout. Birthing Justice puts Black women’s voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternal care system. It foregrounds Black women’s agency in the birth justice movement. First published in 2016, Birthing Justice is a seminal text for those interested in maternal healthcare, reproductive justice, health equity, and intersectional racial justice, especially in courses on gender studies, Black studies, public health, and training programs for midwives and OB/GYNs. Additional resources and a reading group guide are available at www.blackwomenbirthingjustice.com.

    Introduction: Beyond Coercion and Malign Neglect: Black Women and the Struggle for Birth Justice
    JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH

    SECTION I Birthing Histories
    1 Queen Elizabeth Perry Turner: "Granny Midwife," 1931–1
    DARLINE TURNER

    2 Regulating Childbirth: Physicians and Granny Midwives in South Carolina
    ALICIA D. BONAPARTE

    3 Speak Their Names: The Power of Sankofa to Reclaim Black Midwifery
    MICHELLE L. DREW

    SECTION II Beyond Medical Versus Natural: Redefining Birth Injustice
    4 An Abolitionist Mama Speaks: On Natural Birth and Miscarriage 
    VIVIANE SALEH-HANNA

    5 Mothering: A Post-C-section Journey
    JACINDA TOWNSEND

    6 Confessions of a Black Pregnant Dad
    SYRUS MARCUS WARE

    7 Reframing Breastfeeding as Critical to Black Maternal and Infant Health
    KIMBERLY SEALS ALLERS

    8 Birth Justice and Population Control
    LORETTA J. ROSS

    9 Beyond Silence and Stigma: Pregnancy and HIV for Black Women in Canada
    MARVELOUS MUCHENJE AND VICTORIA LOGAN KENNEDY

    10 What I Carry: A Story of Love and Loss
    IRIS JACOB

    11 Sheltering in Community: Reimagining Black Birth during the COVID-19 Pandemic
    JENNIFER ELYSE JAMES, ALEXUS ROANE, AND JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH

    12 Images from the Safe Motherhood Quilt

    SECTION III Changing Lives, One Birth at a Time
    13 This Is How We Fight!: Finding My Power and Protecting the Peace of Black Mothers in a Pandemic
    TANEFER CAMARA

    14 Birthing Sexual Freedom and Healing: A Survivor-Mother’s Birth Story
    BIANY PÉREZ

    15 Birth as Battle Cry: A Doula’s Journey from Home to Hospital
    GINA MARIELA RODRÍGUEZ

    16 Sister Midwife: Nurturing and Reflecting Black Womanhood in an Urban Hospital
    STEPHANIE ETIENNE

    17 WAJAMAMA: Transforming Childbirth in Zanzibar through Holistic Midwifery Care
    NAFISA JIDDAWI

    18 A Love Letter to My Daughter: Love as a Political Act
    HAILE ESHE COLE

    19 New Visions in Birth, Intimacy, Kinship, and Sisterly
    Partnerships
    SHANNON GIBNEY AND VALERIE DEUS

    20 I Am My Hermana’s Keeper: Reclaiming Afro-Indigenous Ancestral Wisdom as a Doula
    GRISELDA RODRIGUEZ

    21 The First Cut Is the Deepest: A Mother-Daughter Conversation about Birth, Justice, Healing, and Love
    PAULINE ANN MCKENZIE-DAY AND ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS

    SECTION IV Taking Back Our Power: Organizing for Birth Justice
    22 Unexpected Allies: Obstetrician Activism, VBACs, and the Birth Justice Movement
    CHRIST-ANN MAGLOIRE AND JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH

    23 Becoming an Outsider-Within: Jennie Joseph’s Activism in Florida Midwifery
    ALICIA D. BONAPARTE AND JENNIE JOSEPH

    24 Embodied Abolition: Prisons, Pregnancy, and the Struggle for Birth Justice
    PRISCILLA A. OCEN AND JULIA CHINYERE OPARAH

    25 Lifting Up Black Doulas: Black Women Organizing to Reimagine Birthwork
    LINDA JONES, SAYIDA PEPRAH-WILSON, AND MONICA R. MCLEMORE

    26 Black Mamas Matter: How Black Women Built a Global Movement for Black Maternal Health, Rights, and Justice
    ELIZABETH DAWES GAY

    27 Expanding a Transnational Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Wellbeing
    JOIA CREAR-PERRY, ANA BARRETO, KELLY DAVIS, AND AJA CLARK

    Biography

    Alicia D. Bonaparte is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College and is a medical sociologist whose research examines the gendered social hierarchy within US medicine and the intersection of race and gender in healthcare practices and disparities. She contributed to The Routledge Companion to Motherhood and Black Feminist Sociology (also published by Routledge) and is completing her book manuscript, Labors of Birthing Work: The Persecution and Prosecution of Granny Midwives, 1900–1940.

    Julia Chinyere Oparah ("Chinyere") is a social justice educator, activist scholar, and transformational leader. She is Professor and Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of San Francisco and Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at Mills College. Chinyere is co-founder of Black Women Birthing Justice. She is author and editor of numerous publications, including Battling Over Birth, Birthing Justice (first edition), Global Lockdown: Race, Gender and the Prison-Industrial Complex, Activist Scholarship, and Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. She lives in Oakland, California, with her partner and daughter.