Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides insight into the Black birthing and breastfeeding experience in the United States and their perceptions of implicit bias, racism, and discrimination in the institutional structure and existing policies of birthing centers. Through in-depth interviews with Black mothers nationwide, Dr. Conner documents the jarring prevalence of racial bias, dismissal of genuine concerns, and substandard care characteristic of these women's encounters with the medical establishment. Her findings elucidate a crisis decade in the making, rooted in systemic discrimination and the legacy of medical experimentation on Black bodies. Dr. Conner's research gives no doubt that despite the end of legal segregation, America's hospitals remain dangerously separate and unequal. The women's candid accounts of neglect, coercion, and dehumanization show glaring gaps between patient autonomy principles and the realities of contemporary obstetric practices.
