Stay at Home Month 6: July

Hamilton at home, Labor and Delivery, Izza Day!, Antepartum, workouts for sanity, Pikachu PJs, and more smiles than tears because we are healthy, thankful, and safe. 

Thank God for Technology

Missing this one so much, but we will keep being safe and depending on technology for our gossip until I can squeeze her tight.

I told her she is our family’s most prized possession 😍🖤

Stay home!

Public Health over Individual Inconvenience

My dad and I on the front lines in Indiana and North Carolina.

Regardless of where you live, the inequities of our society during Covid are glaringly clear.

The only Covid+ patients I (and my colleagues) have taken care of since March are Black and Hispanic. Their stories are all similar.

They cannot social distance - they have been the essential workers that don’t have the luxury or protections to stay at home.

In North Carolina, our population is 10% LatinX, but our most recent data reveals LatinX patients are 46% of our state’s Covid diagnoses. Y’all. THIS IS SYSTEMIC RACISM.

My dad’s Covid patients have all been incarcerated.

Something tells me this is exactly why our country is “ready to open” and it makes me furious.

When Covid was starting to impact the US, I read the following quote by @anandwrites that explains it perfectly:

“Coronavirus makes clear what has been true all along. Your health is as safe as the worst-insured, worst-cared-for person in your society. It will be determined by the height of the floor, not the ceiling.”

This isn’t going to get better for anyone until Americans begin to care more about public health than individual inconvenience.

Think about that when you judge someone for wearing a mask or someone who is continuing to social distance despite restaurants, bars, and beaches being open.

Every day I pray for the safety of my family, coworkers, friends, and our forgotten patients who continue to have their families devastated. 

This is NOT a game. 

This is NOT a hoax. 

Please stay home.

Want to learn more about the Covid-19 pandemic and health disparities?:

Covid-19 Amplifies Racial Disparities in Maternal Health 

Why COVID-19 Disproportionately Impacts Latino Communities

Racism is a Pandemic Too: White Coats for Black Lives

Black people are fighting for their lives in two pandemics - coronavirus AND racism. #WhiteCoatsForBlackLives #BlackLivesMatter #BlackMamasMatter

The last two weeks have been unbelievably heartbreaking and overwhelming for us all. This is a critical moment in our history as a country.

For the new followers, thanks for following and diversifying the content of your feed.

I am a Black woman, wife, mother, and Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellow in North Carolina. I am a doctor who takes care of women with pregnancy complications.

I am also a physician activist. My research focus is Black maternal health and ending the unacceptable disparities (a product of racism) that devastate Black families.

My content is the intersection of all of my identities and has been from the day I wrote my first blog post August 2010. I have always sought to use my platform to inspire others to follow their dreams - there weren’t many Black mother physicians in social media and I knew from experience that “you can’t be what you can’t see”.

For anyone who finds themself here looking for direction on how to be a part of the change, I will share with you what I shared this past weekend on a zoom panel about race:

Everyone’s platform is not going to be Instagram. It may not be videos on YouTube. It may not be giving speeches or presenting research, but we all have a platform.

Our platform is our sphere of influence. It is your home, your school, your job, your church group, and your vote.

It is more critical than ever for you to use your voice. Speak up when you see something that isn’t right. Speak up when you see that someone is mistreated.

It is this country’s culture of silence and indifference after witnessed injustice over generations that has gotten us here.

It is going to take more than thoughts, prayers, and well-meaning texts to your Black friends to get us out.

Please step up, and get ready for the journey because we are just getting started. #blacklivesmatter #blackdoctorsmatter #whitecoatsforblacklives

Racism is a Pandemic Too

 

Not OK.

I am not OK.

As a mother of two Black children, I think about our race and how we are perceived in the world on a daily basis. As the wife of a Black man, I think of it when he leaves the house. As one of a handful of Black doctors in our department, I think of it on a daily basis at work.

Weeks like these knock the wind out of you, because you know that you, and the people you love, have targets on their backs every single day.

You can’t “move to a different neighborhood” your way out of it. 

You can’t “dress or talk a certain way” your way out of it. 

You can’t “have a medical doctorate” your way out of it.

This pandemic has brought out the best and the worst in our country. For my people, it has brought the disproportionate loss of jobs, disproportionate loss of life, and further widens the chasm of resources that should be BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS.

If you are not BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color), we need you to step up. I’m tired of tearfully writing these damn captions.

We need you to fight too. Thank you to all of the call to action posts, the up standers, the acknowledgement of privilege and accountability. Love to see it, but your work is not done.

Please educate yourself on the history of race in our country. How racism has, and continues to infiltrate our society. How is it killing our mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor #GeorgeFloyd

The inhumane and disgusting murder of George Floyd is when racism screams in our faces, but every day, you can see its influences - it’s public education funding from property taxes, it’s hiring discrimination, it’s housing discrimination, it’s colorblindness, it’s white silence.

The palpable silence of the privileged in times of overt racism and racial crisis in our country, is deafening. I implore all of those who call me a friend, to not be silent.

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” - MLK

Instagram accounts to follow if you are looking for ways to educate yourself and join the fight: 

@Rachel.Cargle
@ibramxk
@TheConsciousKid
@GoodGoodGoodCo
@Parentingispolitical