I'm Gabrielle Horton. I'm a 29 year old millennial. I've got aunties, uncles, distant relatives,

geez, even neighbors who want to know when am I going to settle down and have a baby or two.

When I was younger, I used to daydream about how many kids I might have. But for real,

I'm not even going to lie to you all. As I've gotten older and more aware of what motherhood entails,

I'm nervous about going down that road.

Do I know enough about parenting?

Do I have enough money for child care?

Am I even ready to be responsible for the life of a child?

And then there's the close call some of my new parent friends have had while giving birth.

Y'all, I've heard the stories, the unfortunate consequences that stem from disparities in the care black birthing parents receive in our health care system.

And it's appalling and it only adds to my anxiety.

And I feel like this, despite the fact that my home state, California, is regarded as one of the best states to have a baby.

Between 2006 and 2013, California cut its maternal mortality rate in half.

And thanks to the passage of State Senator Holly J. Mitchell's 2019 bill,

racial bias training is now required for all

California parinatal health care providers. In this country, a law like that is a really big deal.

Plus, here in California, you have progressive policies that support freezing eggs and

birth by surrogate and IVF, aka in vitro fertilization. We have culturally responsive

reproductive policy, cutting-edge technology, medical advancements, I mean all things considered,

Cali really stands out as a hub for reproductive technology, and it also seems like a pretty

damn attractive place to start a family, right?

Or at least it should be, but this model state is far from perfect.

...