Hi, Brods and new listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm really excited to share my birth story with you all.

Jess and I recorded this episode earlier, but reflecting kind of on my birth experience, I was overwhelmed with gratitude, but also heaviness knowing that there are so many aspects of privilege that played into this birth experience.

Not only just from the simple fact that I'm white, but also that I am wealthy and healthy enough to experience a home birth with a caring, competent, licensed midwife.

And, you know, I'll be talking more about this on my Instagram and I'll be posting some links and stuff for more info.

But I just wanted to share in case it's something you're not aware of.

When I talk about what it means to have privilege to just even be white and give birth, the infant mortality rate or babies of black mothers is double the rate of babies born to white mothers.

Black mothers in the US diet three to four times the rate of white mothers.

In 2017 in New York City, black women were 12 times as likely to die from pregnancy related causes as white women.

And before you think that this is just limited to, you know, the issue of prenatal care or poverty or any of those things, well, 2016 analysis found that black college educated mothers who gave birth in local hospitals were more likely to suffer severe complications of pregnancy or childbirth and white women who never graduated from high school.

And so, medical racism exists. I mean, just to throw in a couple more stats and a little bit more information.

Half of white medical trainees, according to national surveys, still believe such myths such as black people have thicker skin or less sensitive nerve endings and white people.

And so, I feel that black patients are 22% likely than white patients to receive pain medication. So all this to say that we need to do something about this and something needs to be done.

And I think that this is one of the most, one's pretty much birged our nation. They handled the majority of the births in our country at one point. And now they make up 1% to 2% of our nation's midwives.

So, safe pregnancy and birth is a privilege and it shouldn't be. We need to give black women the power back to birth safely and birth peacefully.

And black women deserve compassionate care. So, I just wanted to take a moment to say that before the episode.

If you have the capacity to give financially, chatty broads as a podcast will be matching donations up to $4,000.

And I, Becca will be also matching donations up to $4,000. So, we'll be matching donations up to $8,000 to help fund black birth workers. And I will have more information on my page about and on the fundraiser link about where exactly this money will be going to.

But we will have a link in the chatty broads bio on the episode show notes and a link in my Instagram profile as well. So, anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge the reality of what it means to have.

A privilege in pregnancy and birth. And yeah, it just felt like it was important to talk about that before diving into this episode because I am truly thankful and full of gratitude to be able to have such a joyful, peaceful and safe experience.

And I want to bring awareness to the fact that that's not the case for everyone. But with that, I do hope that you enjoy this episode. And I hope that it brings you some joy and brings a smile to your face.

And I'm very honored to be able to share it with all of you. So, with that, let's get into the episode.

And welcome to another episode of Shaddy Brads with Becca and Chess.

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