Black Maternal Health Week 2020

It’s #BlackMaternalHealthWeek and I know that today, more than ever, we are inundated with terrible statistics and bad news, but that doesn’t change the fact that we all have a part to play in ending health disparities for all.

One way to start is to get yourself educated on why, for Black women, having a baby in the United States is more deadly than in any other developed nation.

You don’t have to be on the front lines of the clinic or a full time researcher to make a difference.

You can become an ally. You can use your voice to educate others on how implicit bias and structural racism have contributed to this disparity for hundreds of years - impacting the health of generations. Don’t believe me? Just look at the disparities related to #Covid19.

This problem didn’t appear overnight, so it’s going to take persistent, intentional, and complex efforts to reverse it - just take a look at this poignant visual from a paper on the association between mass incarceration and preterm birth rates by Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson (@dr.shawnita). “Free”?! ‪#MicDrop‬ (I HIGHLY recommend you read her full manuscript, which can be easily found on her twitter page @Dr_S_Jefferson)

So, go follow a new account that is leading the charge (or two, or three) this week.

Trust me you can only be inspired by these change-makers:

@blackmamasmatter

@4kira4moms

@birthequity

@nationalblackdoulas just to name a few...

Elevate their work. Share one of their posts. Raise awareness.

Help us in ending the disparities in Black maternal health. #RacismNOTRace #BMHW20

Stay at Home Month 1: March

March 12th our kids came home from school for a long weekend, and the world as we knew it was changed. 

Here are some of the photos from our first month at home.

Lots of digital learning, working {at home and at the hospital for Mommy}, experimenting with hair styles, outside time, and keeping our spirits up with video calls from those we love. 

 

ACOG Congressional Leadership Conference 2020

Invigorated.

That’s how it feels after spending 48hrs with @acog_org in DC preparing for and then speaking with our legislators and their teams about policies to improve women’s health, including:

🤰🏻12 months of postpartum Medicaid coverage

🤰🏾Ensuring that maternity care is valued and reimbursed appropriately

🤰🏼Encouraging lawmakers to prioritize funding and support for women’s health research

It is never enough time, and there is always so much more to do, but we’re going to keep fighting the good fight in NC and in DC.

And maybe one day, my name will be outside one of those Congressional offices 😉

Women can’t wait!

#CLC2020 #NoSpinJustScience

Just One of Those Days...

 How our week started...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jasmine Johnson,MD |MFM Fellow (@mrsmommymd) on Feb 21, 2020 at 6:42pm PST

Thankful for negative flu swabs, resilient children, and a week of babies home sick the same time grandma was in town...(Also, my mother-in-law saved us this week!)

This week I found it way easier to stay stressed about the things that went wrong than to meditate on the things that went right.

Life is a bit crazy right now, but you know what? I know every thing is gonna be alright 😉

Taking a quote from one of the wordsmiths of our time, @champagnepapi, “I wanna thank God for workin' way harder than Satan”. 😅

So ready for this weekend 🙌🏽

SMFM 2020

I have heard people talk about defining moments in their careers. I think this week was mine.⠀

I found the sweet spot.⠀
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The spot where science and data and advocacy meet.⠀

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Yesterday really was a dream. I stood in front of 1700 leaders in Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and presented our research on preterm birth rates among women of high socioeconomic status. We showed that even when you just look at a population of women with similar education levels, private insurance, and not on government assistance, black women AND mixed-race women continue to have higher rates of preterm birth than white women.⠀

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At the end, I called out institutional racism as the cause for the disproportionate number of adverse birth outcomes for women of color.⠀

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It was a call to action. It was a call to stop avoiding the hard conversations and to not get complacent because lives are at stake.⠀
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When I was putting together my presentation, I didn’t know how it was going to go over with the crowd, but I knew I could not mince words.⠀
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Not only was it well received, but I went on to receive the award for best research in health disparities. For the remainder of the conference, I was stopped by many congratulating me on a job well done, but the moments I will never, ever forget are the moments when black MFMs, that paved the way for me and every black MFM fellow (and resident, and medstud) stopped me to say that they were so proud.⠀

I have no words except to tell you when you use your gifts, the world makes room for you. 

#EvidenceBasedAdvocacy #EndHealthDisparities #RacismNOTRace #SMFM20 #SMFM #maternalfetalmedicine

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