Restoring the Soul to Birthing in Miami: A Call for Justice for Obstetric Racism in Miami–Dade County

For far too many Black mothers and birthing people, U.S. hospitals are dangerous and fail to keep our Black mothers and birthing people and their babies safe, alive, and thriving during and after childbirth. The confluence of medical racism and obstetric violence—obstetric racism—leads to a disproportionate rate of predictable, preventable, and unfair death, sickness, and trauma for Black birthing people and babies in the afterlife of slavery. Obstetric racism, as defined by Davis, is both an analytic and phenomenon that describes mechanisms of subordination, control, and dominance to which Black mothers and birthing people are subjected by health systems and health professionals, that track along histories of anti–Black racism and eugenics.1 Obstetric racism defines values, and shapes beliefs, practices, behaviors, policies, procedures, processes, and programs imposed against Black mothers and birthing people that manifest in one of six ways: neglect, disrespect, and dismissiveness; diagnostic lapses; ceremonies of degradation; medical abuse; coercion; intentionally causing pain. In contrast to the profound psychospiritual birthing experience they desire and deserve, Black birthing people often face abuse, disrespect, and coercion during childbirth, with dire, long–lasting consequences for their entire families. Significantly, these health inequities exist regardless of advances in reproductive technology, implementation of traditional patient safety bundles, and their socioeconomic and educational status. After nearly dying giving birth in a Miami hospital, one Black mother shared: “I will never in my life give birth in Miami–Dade County again