Main description:

The second edition of this pathbreaking, widely taught book offers 5 new chapters, on breastfeeding and Black infant health; Black birthing during Covid; Black doulas rethinking birthing practices; the recent buildup of a US national movement; and expanding the global movement for sexual and reproductive wellbeing. Other chapters are updated throughout. Birthing Justice puts black women's voices at the center of the debate on what should be done to fix the broken maternal care system. It foregrounds Black women's agency in the birth justice movement. First published in 2016, Birthing Justice is a seminal text for those interested in maternal healthcare, reproductive justice, health equity, and intersectional racial justice, especially in courses on gender studies, Black studies, public health, and training programs for midwives and OB/GYNs.

Contents:

Introduction: Beyond Coercion and Malign Neglect: Black Women and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Julia Chinyere Oparah with Black Women Birthing Justice

Section I: Birthing Histories

Queen Elizabeth Perry Turner: "Granny Midwife," 1931-1956 by Darline Turner

Regulating Childbirth: Physicians and Granny Midwives in South Carolina by Alicia D. Bonaparte

Speak Their Names: The Power of Sankofa to Reclaim Black Midwifery by Michelle Drew
Section II: Beyond Medical versus Natural: Redefining Birth Injustice

An Abolitionist Mama Speaks: On Natural Birth and Miscarriage by Viviane Saleh-Hanna

Mothering: A Post-C-Section Journey by Jacinda Townsend

Confessions of a Black Pregnant Dad by Syrus Marcus Ware

Reclaiming Breastfeeding and Protecting Black Infant Health by Kimberly Allers Seale

Birth Justice and Population Control by Loretta J. Ross

Beyond Silence and Stigma: Pregnancy and HIV for Black Women in Canada by Marvelous Muchenje and Victoria Logan Kennedy

What I Carry: A Story of Love and Loss by Iris Jacob

Sheltering in Community: Re-imagining Black birth during the COVID-19 pandemic by Jennifer A. James, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Alexus Roane

Images from the Safe Motherhood Quilt
Section III: Changing Lives, One Birth at a Time

This is How we Fight: Black Mamas and Breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic by TaNefer L. Camara

Birthing Sexual Freedom and Healing: A Survivor Mother's Birth Story by Biany Perez

Birth as Battle Cry: A Doula's Journey from Home to Hospital by Gina Mariela Rodriguez

Sister Midwife: Nurturing and Reflecting Black Womanhood in an Urban Hospital by Stephanie Etienne

WAJAMAMA: Transforming Childbirth in Zanzibar through Holistic Midwifery Care by Nafisa Jiddawi

A Love Letter to My Daughter: Love as a Political Act by Haile Eshe Cole

New Visions in Birth, Intimacy, Kinship, and Sisterly Partnerships by Shannon Gibney and Valerie Deus

I Am My Hermana's Keeper: Reclaiming Afro-Indigenous Ancestral Wisdom as a Doula by Griselda Rodriguez

The First Cut Is the Deepest: A Mother-Daughter Conversation about Birth, Justice, Healing, and Love by Pauline Ann McKenzie-Day and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Section IV: Taking Back Our Power: Organizing for Birth Justice

Unexpected Allies: Obstetrician Activism, VBACs, and the Birth Justice Movement by Christ-Ann Magloire and Julia Chinyere Oparah

Becoming an Outsider-Within: Jennie Joseph's Activism in Florida Midwifery by Alicia D. Bonaparte and Jennie Joseph

Embodied Abolitionism: Prisons, Pregnancy, and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Priscilla A. Ocen and Julia Chinyere Oparah

Lifting Up Black Doulas: Black Women Organizing to Reimagine Birthwork by Linda Jones, Monica R. McLemore and Sayida Peprah-Wilson

Black Mamas Matter: How Black Women Built a National Movement for Black Maternal Health, Rights and Justice by Elizabeth Dawes Gay

Expanding a Transnational Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Wellbeing by Joia Crear-Perry, Kelly Davis, Ana Barreto, and Aja Clark