Welcome to Natural MD Radio, your place to hear the whole truth on health and medicine

for women and children and get the tools you need to take back your health naturally starting

now.

I'm Dr. Aviva Raul.

Welcome back to Natural MD Radio, everybody and welcome especially to another really special

episode of The Birth Circle.

For those of you who are joining for the first time, just a super quick background is that

I started out studying to be a midwife 37 years ago, began my midwifery practice in 1988.

And I was so fortunate to have an early exposure to natural birth, home birth and had what

I would truly describe as the privilege of having healthy pregnancies and having my babies

at home.

And when I say privilege, I really want to emphasize that word because for many women

that privilege for a variety of reasons is not inherent and it should be, but we know

statistically in the US, black women have three times the maternal mortality as white

women and that is across the board.

We're not talking about statistics that have to do with poverty or lack of access to

care.

It doesn't matter what your socioeconomic background is or your education.

You can be an MD with three PhDs and still have three times the likelihood of dying in

childbirth as a white woman.

And this has to do with a lot of factors, inherent racism and stress that women carry when they're

in an oppressive system and also the experience of interfacing with the maternal health system.

...