Elaine Welteroth shares how having a baby completely changed her perspective on health as well as how the current medical system is set up for profit first and statistically has failed black women more than any other race. Read more at: https://www.sheknows.com/health-and-wellness/videos/2789484/elaine-welteroth-black-maternal-health/
Video credits
VP, Video: Reshma Gopaldas
Editor: Jacqueline Soller
Video credits
VP, Video: Reshma Gopaldas
Editor: Jacqueline Soller
Category
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FunTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Having a baby completely changed my relationship to health.
00:08 I had a really tough pregnancy from beginning to end.
00:12 My first trimester was so much harder
00:15 than anyone had ever told me.
00:18 I was exhausted and nauseated every single day for 19 weeks.
00:23 I developed really chronic pain in my hip, pelvis area.
00:30 And I was diagnosed with this condition called SPD,
00:33 which is pubis symphysis dysfunction.
00:36 And it turns out that one in five pregnant women
00:39 experience this condition that is debilitating.
00:42 And for many women, you cannot walk in your pregnancy
00:47 and you have to be like wheeled around.
00:49 It literally feels like your legs
00:52 are disconnecting from their sockets.
00:56 Even rolling over in bed is excruciating.
00:58 Getting out of bed to go to the bathroom
01:01 is something you can no longer do by yourself.
01:03 So I felt really dependent in a way
01:06 that was really hard for me psychologically
01:08 and emotionally, and it was just a very vulnerable time
01:13 all for this child that I didn't plan for, frankly.
01:17 It was so much change all at once
01:21 and really, really so much harder
01:23 than I thought pregnancy would be.
01:25 But thank God for me,
01:26 I had the most beautiful birth experience out of hospital
01:31 with a team of black midwives that made me feel so safe.
01:36 My husband ended up being my doula.
01:40 I called him my dad doula.
01:41 And we brought this baby into the world
01:44 in such a sacred way.
01:47 I was truly like on a high,
01:50 on a natural high when I gave birth.
01:51 And I haven't come down.
01:53 It's been a year and like three months,
01:55 and I am still on a high.
01:57 I'm like in love with my baby,
01:59 and I feel so supported.
02:01 I have not let my midwives go.
02:03 They're like my aunties.
02:04 I invite them over all the time.
02:06 They came to the baby's first birthday party.
02:08 They're a part of my tribe forever.
02:10 I think that I was aware
02:12 of the black maternal mortality crisis in a peripheral sense
02:15 as maybe a survival tactic.
02:18 I tried to insulate myself from that awareness
02:22 because I didn't want to bring that fear
02:26 into my birthing experience.
02:28 And I also think that I naively believed
02:33 that my privilege would insulate me in some way
02:38 from those negative outcomes that you hear about,
02:41 those deadly outcomes that you hear about.
02:43 Black women are dying three to four times more
02:48 than white women.
02:50 And that stat is inclusive of every socioeconomic status.
02:55 It doesn't matter how much money you make.
02:58 It doesn't matter what school you went to.
03:00 It doesn't matter who you know.
03:02 You can very well become a statistic.
03:05 I became pregnant shortly after I moved to LA
03:08 in the pandemic.
03:09 So I didn't have a doctor, let alone an OB.
03:12 Nobody was going to the doctor during the pandemic
03:14 unless God forbid you had a really serious case of COVID
03:17 or some other health crisis.
03:19 So I thought, how hard is it going to be to find an OB?
03:21 Like how hard could it be to have a healthy baby
03:24 in this country?
03:26 It's pretty hard.
03:27 I went to see doctor after doctor
03:30 and I had awful experiences.
03:32 I had doctors that straight up gaslit me
03:35 that absolutely did not want to hear my questions,
03:38 didn't want to entertain any of my curiosities.
03:42 I had issues with negligence, like gross negligence.
03:46 What I knew after going to eight different doctors
03:50 is that this is not a system that is set up for me.
03:52 I was so grateful to have my eyes really opened
03:55 to the world of midwifery care.
03:58 They came into my life and they just made me feel so safe,
04:03 so seen, not like a statistic.
04:06 They cared about like my holistic health.
04:10 They asked about my marriage, how I was feeling in general,
04:15 and they would spend like hours with me if I needed it,
04:19 which is night and day
04:20 from what you experience in a hospital.
04:22 You get 15 minutes if you're lucky with a doctor.
04:25 There isn't just one way to have a healthy baby
04:28 in this country.
04:29 If anyone is making you feel that you have to stick
04:33 to this model of maternal health that isn't working for you,
04:36 they're lying to you.
04:37 There's more to know, there's more to explore.
04:40 Now part of my work is to make sure
04:43 that the next generation of moms
04:46 aren't going to this as blind as we were
04:49 and as naive as I was.
04:51 I went from hearing about the Black maternal mortality crisis
04:55 through the lens of statistics
04:57 to understanding it in a first-person way,
05:02 where I was experiencing the failures of our medical system
05:06 up close and personal in my lived experience,
05:10 even as a Black woman with all of the privileges
05:13 you could have in this country.
05:15 It did not separate me from those statistics.
05:18 And I hope that we are reframing this conversation
05:21 for this next generation of women through the lens of hope,
05:24 through the lens of options and agency,
05:27 and like a safe, sacred, beautiful birthing experience
05:30 is what we deserve.
05:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]