The Patient & The Policy Maven: Navigating Black Maternal Health Through Lived & Learned Experiences
I remember reading through the pages of the New York Times viral article that unlocked my life’s passion and fueled my drive for health equity. I remember the words being weighty and my petite frame sinking lower with each sentence. I can still feel the tremble in my hands and the shock of my system while reading the shared narratives of women whose lives seemed to mirror mine and realizing that I am a member of the group that is populating the statistics. With sharp precision, I remember when I first learned of Black maternal mortality, which bleeds through zip codes, socioeconomic statues and education levels, too. Since then, I have spent my evenings buried in journal articles and sifting through news stories, while my days are spent developing targeted campaigns — from grassroots to grasstops — to upend the disparaging statistic of Black women being 2–3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women.
As a health policy professional, I know the necessity of nuance; as an 8-month pregnant mama, I know the personal is political.
My workdays are filled with depth and specificity developing new analyses and strategic advocacy. I am challenged mightily while also being greatly rewarded. I’m given a stage to present on as well as prime seating in the audience arena to continue expanding my understanding as one undergoing care. Interweaving my lived experiences as an 8-month pregnant woman and mother of a toddler, I am spatially patterned across the axis of thought-leaders and meaning-makers helping to drive the national discussion about Black maternal health and well-being (my little-known-secret to drafting run of shows and seamless speaker sequences is that I also pencil in frequent pauses for bathroom breaks because my growing baby has made my bladder his dwelling place). For me, maternal health policy is more than just a job or career trajectory that I happened upon. Having experienced a number of hardships during maternity leave after the birth of my first son, then later as a workin’ mom parenting in a double pandemic, I work to correct the economic toll that draconian practices place on systems while balancing the emotional toll — a la weathering — that these very same practices place on individuals, families and communities. I assess the system from the inside out as both a consumer and consultant.
Nonetheless, squarely within my 1,000-day window and having just started recounting with pregnancy number two, in addition to helping shape cutting-edge policy and federal advocacy, I am simultaneously entrusted to help shape another person’s purpose through mothering, which will forever be my crowning joy. I have lived a very colorful life and, quite literally, everything pales in comparison! I’ve never known a greater love, joy, title, accomplishment or milestone than that of motherhood and marriage.
Befittingly, this year’s Black Maternal Health Week (BMHW) theme is “Claiming Our Power, Resilience and Liberation,” which, for me, looks like sharing my lived experiences — personally and professionally. Since its founding in 2017 with the purpose of (1) Deepening the national discussion about the maternal health crisis, (2) Inspiring activism and (3) Raising awareness, BMHW has been widely celebrated by Black mamas and Black women-led organizations from New Mexico to New York, Oakland to Orlando and beyond! Each year, this celebratory week proves what I’ve always known to be true: Black women have long had the solutions to the problems that plague us — in fact, we are the solutions! Whether the patient, policy maven, seasoned parent or ally, it is my hope that our collective lived and learned experiences will undergird emerging maternal health policy, which would, in turn, mirror more of a person-in-environment perspective and recognize patients as the experts of their lived experiences thereby shifting the framwork from paternalistic saviorism to one that centers equity, access and the people.
Inimitably positioned at a Black woman-led organization during this pivotal time in our nation’s history and during this most memorable time in my life as a pregnant Black woman with a portfolio centering pregnant and birthing Black people, my aim goes beyond crafting commonsense policy, developing substantive bill language and even cultivating well-nurtured relationships on Capitol Hill. This is because with insight and professionalism that can only be learned years beyond the classroom, I understand how policy informs practice. I am familiar with the language and lens of both the impacted community and stakeholders alike. Focusing in on what fuels the asks, a simple legislative win just won’t cut it when Black women’s marital statuses, socioeconomic statuses, educational attainment, access to private coverage, nor opting to birth at top-rated maternity care hospitals will shield us from becoming a statistic. Intimately familiar with the intricacies of maternal health policy, from the prenatal visit to the lobby day, I will continue to name racism as a public health threat and paid family & medical leave as a public health imperative. I’ll always argue the need for postpartum Medicaid coverage beyond the standard 60-days and call on private insurances to end surprise billing for new moms. Claiming my power, resilience and liberation, for this brief snapshot of time, I am both the patient and the policy maven adding voice to the conversation and converting insight to influence!
