Black Women's Dept. of Labor

Season 1 Episode 7 features an interview with Dr. Lynn Roberts: a mother, grandmother, professor, and scholar activist. In this week’s episode we discuss some historical moments of reproductive justice organizing and advocacy in New York City from the nineties and early 2000’s as well as the intersections of public health and reproductive justice in Lynn’s career and beyond.
Lynn Roberts’ Bio:
Dr. Lynn Roberts earned a Bachelor in Science in human development from Howard University (1984) and a PhD in Human Services Studies from Cornell University (1991). She is the Associate Dean of Student Affairs & Alumni Relations and a tenured faculty member in the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. Prior to CUNY, she oversaw the development, implementation and evaluation of several programs for women and youth in NYC. She is an emeritus board member of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective and co-edited the anthology, Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique.

References During the Episode:

• [book] Reproductive Justice: An Introduction by Loretta Ross and Ricki Solinger
• [book] Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
• [book] Reproductive Injustice by Dana Ain Davis
• [book] Policing the Womb by Michele Goodwin
• Critical Race Theorists and Scholars: Kimberle’ Crenshaw, Chandra Ford

Questions to Consider After the Episode:
What are the frameworks and theories that guide your work? And how can those frameworks and theories influence (and be influenced by) your activism?
Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Support the show

Season 1 Episode 9 features an interview with Nicole Jean Baptiste: a mother of two, a full spectrum community based doula, lactation counselor, yoga instructor, and oral historian. In this week’s episode we discuss Nicole’s journey into birthwork (which includes a bit about her own birth story) as well as the birth injustice she has witnessed in New York City as a doula and as an advocate. We also dive into doula work: from the importance of compensating doulas to valuing doulas as autonomous birthworkers. Nicole offers some sound suggestions and advice for what our City can do to better serve pregnant and parenting people, and folks of reproductive age.

Nicole Jean Baptiste’s Bio:
Of Southern American and Caribbean ancestry and based in the Bronx, New York, Nicole Jean Baptiste strives to center the borough and the Black experience in the birth and social justice activism in which she engages. Nicole is currently a Community Doula Consultant for the New York City Health Department’s COVID-19 Perinatal Taskforce. She is the founder of Sésé Doula Services and co-founder of the Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective.

References During the Episode:

• Donate to Bx (Re)Birth and Progress Collective via PayPal and through their registry on Target
• Follow Nicole and Bx (Re)Birth and Progress on Instagram
• Birth Centers in NYC: Brooklyn Birthing Center, Jazz Birthing Center (sister center of the Brooklyn Birthing Center), and the Birthing Center of New York
• To learn more about Amber Rose Isaac and her death, you can read this article in The Guardian

Questions to Consider After the Episode:

• How can our City make doulas more accessible to people who want them and need them?
• How can healthcare institutions and healthcare providers follow the lead of their patients and clients?

Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Support the show

Season 1 Episode 3 features an interview with Leslie Grant Spann. We discuss her three birth stories, and do a deep dive into the history of reproductive justice community organizing via Sistas on the Rise in the Bronx, New York City and nationwide with young parents in the early 2000s.
Leslie Grant Spann Bio:
Leslie Grant-Spann began her work in social justice as a 15-year-old-mother working with Sistas on the Rise in the South Bronx. Leslie organized other young mothers around access to education and childcare in New York with intersections to the larger reproductive justice movement. Leslie has served in a number of leadership positions: Executive Director of Sistas on the Rise (2007-2011); Secretary to the Board of Directors for SisterSong (2007-2013); and as a member of the Standing in Our Power Leadership team (2013-present). Leslie is the Director of Conferences and Convenings for Race Forward. In this role, Leslie is the Executive Producer of the Facing Race National Conference: the largest multiracial racial justice conference in the United States. Leslie also manages the production of over two dozen in-person and virtual events for the organization annually. In 2019 Leslie founded 31st Event Productions LLC which supports organizations and businesses to produce unique and inclusive in-person and virtual experiences to drive mission and brand awareness.

References During the Episode:

• Young Women United (now Bold Futures)
• Martha Neilson Schools (closed in 2007. Learn more about the closure’s effect on Sistas on the Rise and young parents on this blog post on Radical Doula)
• Organizations and projects in NYC that are no longer around but organized with Sistas on the Rise: Brooklyn Young Mothers Collective, Sister 2 Sister, Community Birthing Project

Questions to consider after the episode:
Leslie’s birth stories and history of reproductive justice organizing highlight some of the ways that multiple City agencies impact the health and well-being of parents and families. Consider: how do multiple systems and institutions impact health and families? Especially sexual and reproductive health, including pregnancy and childbirth. And how does this understanding impact how we organize communities for reproductive justice and birth justice?
Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Support the show

Season 1 Episode 2 features an interview with professor Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens. We discuss a brief history of American gynecology and we reflect on what this history means in present day gynecological care, including her own experiences of medical racism.
But before we jump into this week's episode, we take a moment of silence for Sha-Asia Washington - a 26 year old Black woman who died during childbirth in early July at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. Say her name. Learn her story. Here is the gofundme page to support her newborn and her family.
Deirdre Cooper Owens Bio:
Deirdre Cooper Owens is the Linda and Charles Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is an Organization of American Historians’ (OAH) Distinguished Lecturer and has won a number of prestigious honors for her scholarly and advocacy work. A popular public speaker, Dr. Cooper Owens has spoken widely across the U.S. and Europe. She has published articles, essays, book chapters, and think pieces on a number of issues that concern African American experiences. Her first book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology (Univ. of Georgia Press, 2017) won the 2018 Darlene Clark Hine Book Award from the Organization of American Historians as the best book written in African American women’s and gender history. Professor Cooper Owens is also the Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest cultural institution. She is working on a second book project that examines mental illness during the era of United States slavery and is writing a popular biography of Harriet Tubman that examines her through the lens of disability.

References During the Episode:

• [Book] Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology
• [Lecture] Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens presenting on her book Medical Bondage at Carnegie Mellon University (2019)
• [Organization] East Harlem Preservation Society (Marina Ortiz, founder)

Questions to consider after the episode:
What are some examples of practices, behaviors and policies that are considered “normal” in healthcare that do not sit right with you? Consider how racist practices, behaviors and policies have become so rampant and routine that they are accepted as a normal part of American healthcare.
Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Support the show

Season 1 Episode 5 features an interview with Carmen Mojica. We discuss her journey into birthwork and motherhood, the history and current practice of midwifery, and what it will take to achieve birth justice in the Bronx and in New York City.
Carmen Mojica Bio:
Carmen Mojica CPM, LM CLC is an Afro-Dominicana born and raised in the Bronx. She is a midwife, mother, writer and reproductive health activist. The focus of her work is on the empowerment of women and people of the African Diaspora, specifically discussing the Afro-Latina identity. She utilizes her experience as a midwife to raise awareness on maternal and infant health for women, highlighting the disparities in the healthcare system in the United States for women of color. She is a cofounder of Bronx Rebirth and Progress.

References During the Episode:

• Donate to Bronx Rebirth and Progress via PayPal and through their registry on Target
• Pregnancy and Postpartum in the time of COVID-19: NYC Resources
• [Book] Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy and Childbirth edited by Julia Oparah and Alicia Bonaparte
• [Book] Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
• [Book] Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington
• [Book] Born in the USA: How a Broken Maternity System Must Be Fixed to Put Women and Children First by Marsden Wagner
• Types of midwives: Certified Midwife, Certified Nurse Midwife, Certified Professional Midwife,
• Certifying institutions: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM)
• Robert Woods Johnson Foundation’s County Health Rankings and Road Maps

Questions to Consider After the Episode:

• How can we make midwifery more accessible in our City, namely Certified Nurse Midwives?
• What are ways our City can provide resources for people to give birth outside of hospitals? This can be in people’s homes and in birthing centers.
• How can we shift conversations that focus solely on maternal mortality to take a look at the broad scope of how maternal healthcare is not serving the needs of pregnant and birthing people overall?

Created and Hosted by Taja Lindley
Produced by Colored Girls Hustle
Music, Soundscape and Audio Engineering by Emma Alabaster
Support our work on Patreon or make a one-time payment via PayPal
For more information visit BirthJustice.nyc
This podcast is made possible, in part, by the Narrative Power Stipend - a grant funded by Forward Together for members of Echoing Ida.

Support the show