Giving birth is such a blessing, and can be a wonderful experience if you have the right support system around you, including the hospital you give birth at, your nursing staff, and your birthing team (OB/GYN, midwife, and/or doula). Although most of us aren’t well off enough to rent out a whole room like the Carters, there are other options like private birthing suites to make your experience as relaxing and memorable as possible. But do you truly get the treatment you deserve (or the treatment you don’t) based simply on your skin color?
Denene Millner, founder of My Brown Baby, discussed her experience of birthing while black on Huffington Post’s Black Voices. Millner revealed that despite paying extra for a private room, birthing suite, and other amenities, she had to ask for the things she paid for and was treated unbelievably rude by the staff. They drug tested her baby without her consent, did not give her proper instructions after birth, and acted surprised when the man who stood by her was her husband, and not just the baby’s father.
Despite the fact that I paid for the private room and meals, I was immediately put in a massive post-birth room with three other women and their newborns. I was moved only after I asked why I wasn’t in a private room””a question that elicited scowls and foot-dragging from the nurse until she bothered to check my paperwork to see that, indeed, I’d paid for a private room. It took three hours for my room to be changed.
Read the rest of the story at Black Voices.
What was your birthing experience? Do you feel like black families are treated unfairly compared to other races?