Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis

"Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis reveals hard truths— powerful findings on the role of racism, coercion, inadequate prenatal care, the pressures undermining breastfeeding and the lack of access to alternatives to a broken maternal health-care system as key threads of black women’s birth experiences."

—Kimberly Seals Allers, MS, author, The Big Letdown

"This book clearly lays out the barriers facing Black families, but it also offers solutions. I think every professional who works with parents and babies of any color should read this book."

—Sharon Muza, BS, CD(DONA), BDT(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, CLE

"Battling over Birth is a critical and timely resource for understanding black women’s birthing experiences in the United States, a country where black women’s lives—and the lives they create—are at much greater risk of death and injury than those of non-black women … By distilling the common and diverse threads from over 100 black women, the BWBJ researchers have woven a multi-faceted tapestry that reflects what black women view as important and central to optimal birth experiences. Their recommendations for improving care and outcomes are grounded in black women’s authoritative knowledge. … This wonderful, important, necessary research by and for black women points in the direction that black women think we should go to ensure they have safe, healthy, and satisfying birth experiences and outcomes. We need to listen and act."

—Christine Morton, PhD, author, Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-Emergence of Woman-Supported Birth in America

Black Women Birthing Justice is a collective of African-American, African, Caribbean and multiracial women who are committed to transforming birthing experiences for black women and transfolks. Our vision is that every pregnant person should have an empowering birthing experience, free of unnecessary medical interventions and forced separation from their child. Our goals are to educate, to document birth stories and to raise awareness about birthing alternatives. We aim to challenge human rights violations, rebuild confidence in our ability to give birth, and decrease disproportionate maternal and infant mortality.