Hi First name / There!
I hope that you are doing well today. Before we jump into today’s topic, I just want to say thank you. If you happened to share the information about my workshop on Black mothers and postpartum, thank you. If you happened to come to my workshop, thank you. If you sent me good vibes and thoughts for my workshop, thank you! I will get into our topic for today soon, but first I really want to share with you a bit more about my workshop and how it went.
In short, it was awesome! I felt so honored and touched to be in the presence of these women as they shared their experiences. The workshop was well received and there was a call for more. In addition to the workshop, I created a FREE
Quick Relief Guide for the mommies to utilize after the workshop. I’m really proud of this guide because I developed it for all moms who may be struggling with postpartum, but I also found a way to talk directly to my Black mothers within my guide.
In addition to the guide and workshop, I’m VERY excited to announce that I launched a new email list/newsletter that is specifically for mothers. My new newsletter is linked to the quick relief guide and I will write to mommies once a month. If you happen to be a mom you should take a look at the guide (and get on the email list). If you know of a mom who may benefit from the guide, share the link with her. And of course, if you just want to support feel free to join the new email list (NO PRESSURE I promise). You can access my Quick Relief Guide, or grab the link to share with others, by
clicking here. Finally, I will be hosting another FREE workshop on postpartum on Saturday, June 10th from 10am to 12pm (PST). This workshop is
open to all mommies. You can find the details about that workshop and how to register at the bottom of this newsletter.
So what are we talking about today? Well . . . I am going to be sharing why I am focusing so heavily on Black mothers, and the importance of continuing to bring awareness to what Black women go through during the perinatal, prenatal, and postpartum phases. Before I get into this, I want to first name that my focus on Black women is not to exclude other women of different ethnic backgrounds. I am rather providing a space for us that is safe, where we feel INCLUDED. More times than not, as Black women we are one of few (if not the only) in many spaces, and some of us cannot experience the freedom to be our authentic selves in those environments. It is for this reason that I feel it is important to create safe spaces that are just for us, because often times we don't feel safe in spaces that are suppose to be open to everyone. So although I do not and will not, apologize for my intentionality in creating spaces just for my people, I do want to acknowledge that it is not to exclude but rather to include. And again, there is information below about a workshop I'm hosting in June for all mommies.
With that said, as I hosted the workshop this past weekend, what I already know to be true was confirmed. The demand is pretty high for Black women needing (and wanting) support in the postpartum phase of motherhood. Many of the moms expressed appreciation for being in community with other Black moms and to be able to be their true authentic selves. Being able to feel in community as your authentic self is something that is crucial during the postpartum period, because it is during the time after having a baby that we often do not feel like ourselves. So as a Black woman, having a safe space to be yourself amongst other Black women is critical for managing postpartum symptoms.
In addition to the authenticity that Black moms need to be able to experience as they work through adjusting to motherhood or expanding their family, I find it important to provide space for Black women to talk about the experiences they had during their perinatal, prenatal, and now postpartum phases. Experiences that are specific to being a Black woman, and experiences that influence the intensity of postpartum symptoms.
When looking at the perinatal phase (the phase prior to becoming pregnant), Black women are 2 times more likely to have a miscarriage than other women. 1 in 4 pregnancies end in a miscarriage, so that means for a Black woman 2 in 4 pregnancies will end in a miscarriage. Once we get past that phase, if we are blessed to have kids, we enter the prenatal phase. We are often under screened or not taken seriously when we complain about particular symptoms. These mishaps in medical judgement and quality care can truly be the difference between life and death.
I want you to realize that the simple act of getting pregnant is a risk for a Black woman, and not just a small benign risk. Getting pregnant as a Black woman is literally a risk to our life and/or the life of our baby, especially the closer we get to delivering our baby. Many of you know my story of needing to have an emergency c-section with my first daughter, due to the significant drop in her heart rate, which took place after the administration of a medication to “move the labor along.” It was truly by the grace of God that I had a Black nurse and surgeon who stepped in and decided to make the call to have an emergency c-section. Mind you, my husband and I had questioned at least 2 previous nurses regarding the fluctuations in my daughters heart rate. Needless to say, those 2 nurses were “not concerned.” However, my story is not what I want you to take away from the newsletter today. What I want you to take away is this. . .
I make space for Black mothers because it is important for people to understand that our experiences are not an exaggeration, and the research out there proves it. Did you know that compared to other women, Black women are often 2 to 3 times more likely to experience a disparity in the areas of perinatal, prenatal, and postpartum care? This includes miscarriage, maternal deaths, infant deaths, postpartum depression, and postpartum anxiety. How awful is that statistic?! And what makes it worse, income and education levels often don't make a difference!
Please keep in mind that these statistics do not include certain situations such as being appropriately screened for the healthy progression of a pregnancy, the early signs of pregnancy complications, and even the being appropriately monitored during labor and delivery. If these situations were factored into the research, I'm sure the numbers would be even higher for Black women, making us more of a statistic in areas that we should not be ranking high in.
When a Black woman has a baby, and she and her child survive that process, that Black woman may very well have more intense symptoms of postpartum. Just the journey that a Black woman has to walk to bring a baby into this world is difficult to say the least. When we add the normal phase of adjusting to a baby into that experience, it is safe to say that a Black woman’s postpartum journey may be a bit complex. So again, what I want you to take away from today’s newsletter is that we must bring awareness to this issue of Black maternal health. It should not only be Black women speaking up about these disparities, but rather those who DON’T look like us should be speaking up too. Until June, make sure you do something that will help you Bloom Into Your Best Self. . .
