Artistic Interlude: A Personal Reflection on Birth

ABSTRACT The illustration, Four Attempts Between , reflects on a pivotal moment during the birth of my first child, when four failed IV attempts became the most prolonged and painful part of labor. I came to see my own body as rendered an “anti‑body” within a system that could not meet my needs—even in moments meant to be routine. This personal rupture echoes Davis's framing of how Black women's bodies are positioned for failure in medical settings, regardless of intent. Drawing from my work as a birth and postpartum doula and artist, I pair personal memory with visual storytelling to illuminate the need for empathy, skill, and advocacy in birth. This piece is both a record of harm and a call to name these harms, resist their normalization, and imagine care that affirms and protects.