Almost 20 years ago, I gave birth to a set of premature twins. I was healthy prior to and during my pregnancy; however, giving birth to multiples is always an at-risk pregnancy. The children were due on November 5th, 1999, but I went into labor August 17th and was told fairly unceremoniously on August 24th, “this pregnancy is over.” I had an emergency C-section that night beginning at 6:30. I gave birth to Bo VP at 6:32 and James VP at 6:34 p.m. 

As I discussed last night, I have had a multi-day argument with a white woman on a friend’s page. As discussed, she suggested I “live as a person instead of a person of color.” My response, “Why when black women are 4 to 8x’s more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts would I do that?” Ignoring racism is a life or death decision for people of color and Black people in particular. Once again, her answer was jaw dropping. So, tonight we are going to talk about Blaming the Victim which is masked by a subtle argument of the genetic inferiority of Black people and the lack of morals of Black women. 

Her responses to me always start off with “I don’t see color…” This particular response started with that and went into “(since you are insisting that I make the distinction between Black and White), Black women give birth at a far younger age with far less health care (not for lack of coverage but a lack of education on what’s required for a healthy pregnancy), Black women are at higher risk for high blood pressure genetically, preeclampsia-again genetically… There’s also a higher number of pregnancies within the Black community than there is the White community.”

This deserves a a “BITCH, PLEASE!” before I go on.

There is so much to deconstruct here including her comments regarding education, healthcare and birth rates. Right now, I am just going to concentrate on the part of her comment that says, Black women are more likely to have high blood pressure during pregnancy preeclampsia- genetically. That may be true, but here’s the problem with that argument beside the fact that she slipped in the genetic  inferiority argument: White women get preeclampsia, too. Black women are NOT the only women to get it although, we are more likely to get it. There are protocols in place to screen EVERY pregnant woman for high blood pressure and protocols to follow for treatment regardless of race.  

Study after study shows that when Black women have the exact problems, complaints or vital signs as White women before and during pregnancy, while giving birth and immediately after, established protocols are not followed due to the unconscious bias (that’s a nice way of saying racist behaviors)  of their treating medical team. This results in a death rate four times (8x’s in New York) higher for Black women than it does for their white counterparts. In some parts of the country, this number is as high as it is in third world countries. 

Going back to giving birth twenty years ago. I had prenatal care starting approximately 2 weeks after conception, I told my doctor I was having twins (he didn’t believe me) and I went to every prenatal appointment, husband in tow. Had it not been for my ex-husband’s watchful eye, I would not be here writing this post. When I had the emergency C-section, my doctor nicked a fibroid and I began to bleed internally. Fibroids are more common in Black women and can cause a myriad of problems, being nicked is one of them. My doctor, who wasBlack, was going to close me up because there were no established protocols at that time for what to do. He could not make the executive decision to cut the fibroid out because I had not given him written consent prior to the EMERGENCY C-section. I would have likely bled internally and died. My ex insisted that they cut it out. He said, “You can’t leave that in her. She’ll die.” The doctor took that as permission and took it out. Thank God!

Right now, I am really hoping the woman I am having this discussion with is not a fetal-maternal medical personnel in any way, shape form or fashion. 

Please see the picture below for a comment a friend who has a Ph.D. in epidemiology said about her research.