tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741036541041672560.post8623514312091398238..comments2024-03-24T12:47:49.253-04:00Comments on Dou-la-la: Shameless repost: Race, Class, and the Pregnant /Nursing MomAnnehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01019907275666753543noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741036541041672560.post-80166138234519386702009-12-10T00:03:47.535-05:002009-12-10T00:03:47.535-05:00Amen, rAmen, Shalom, namaste and blessed be.Amen, rAmen, Shalom, namaste and blessed be.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01019907275666753543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741036541041672560.post-61712634962864493022009-12-09T11:42:24.051-05:002009-12-09T11:42:24.051-05:00This is an important topic, and health care inequa...This is an important topic, and health care inequalities are more important than anyone's bad attitude.TheFeministBreederhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10870473200937110378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741036541041672560.post-67126034491500337612009-12-09T10:35:50.440-05:002009-12-09T10:35:50.440-05:00Thanks for reposting this!
When I was teaching a ...Thanks for reposting this!<br /><br />When I was teaching a class at a midwifery center recently, one of my students, a black doula from Atlanta, said that she had an experience in which one of her young black mothers had been really committed to breastfeeding, but as soon as the baby was born and her family was there, her grandmother, the matriarch, said "No granddaughter of mine is going to breastfeed." She went on to explain that there is a stigma still associated with breastfeeding due to its association with slave women being forced to be wet nurses. <br /><br />I have heard this association before in a hypothetical sense. But, it was really sad to hear of someone seeing it operate in person, and the other women of color in the class agreed, and another shared a similar story. She was from New York.<br /><br />The birth center where I trained had a very high breastfeeding success rate that seemed to cross color and class lines, but so did our staff and the other clients, so maybe an atmosphere in which breastfeeding was normalized with a diverse representation of folks helped. Most hospitals don't have poor women of color as lactation consultants, and breastfeeding isn't considered normalized, with formula only as an intervention when necessary.<br /><br />Also, if you factor in that many physicians think black women have <a href="http://momstinfoilhat.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/my-head-hurts/" rel="nofollow">unfavorable pelvises for vaginal delivery</a>, so may receive more unnecessary cesareans, and may have higher rates of other complications, such as hypertensive disorders, they may have more problems successfully breastfeeding due to their cesarean section, which has been shown in some cases to matter.<br /><br />And finally, I am not going to say anything specific about any drama except that it is a shame. This is an important topic, and health care inequalities are more important than anyone's bad attitude.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741036541041672560.post-28369219995794400362009-12-09T01:17:58.197-05:002009-12-09T01:17:58.197-05:00Jespren, first, WOW, what an ordeal! I'm so so...Jespren, first, WOW, what an ordeal! I'm so sorry - what a terrible example of our health care system's failings.<br /><br />These are good points, and interestingly, someone else *just* made similar ones on the older version of this post.Annehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01019907275666753543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5741036541041672560.post-76285606986481386592009-12-08T20:41:41.644-05:002009-12-08T20:41:41.644-05:00My husband and I went from being comfortable, if t...My husband and I went from being comfortable, if tight, to completely destitute (we managed to stay in our appartment just barely and only with family help) after our first baby was in the NICU for 32 days and wracked up a horendous hospital bill (before insurance about 1/2 a million.) Now I realize that I have a better education than the average poor person (3.9 gpa through 2 years of college and continuing to research and study as a lay person extensively), but I was able to find a chiropractor who would see me as a 'charity' case for a tax write off, a peer lactation consultant through WIC plus a professional lactation consultant who saw me for free under a state government grant, a county health nurse to make in-home visits to check on baby's healthy/developement, a in-home consultant on normal development through The New Parent Network (called different things in different states but availible throughout the USA), food assistance through WIC, and donated clothes, toys, and even a mayawrap baby sling. The programs, both public and private, are absolutely there for people without the means to still have access to pretty much anything someone 'with means' can access for the healthy/happiness of baby and mother. (almost everything I mentioned is availible nationwide if you look) Plus medicare in most states covers chiropractic work. I agree race seems to play a role (the statistics are pretty clear) in infant mortality and poor postnatal outcomes, but ecomonics only does if you let it. I think education and drive have a lot more to do with it than monetary means.Jesprenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14903500008082377569noreply@blogger.com