Page 103 - Parents Magazine (December 2019)
P. 103
Chinyere Oparah knew that pregnancy at use these stories to push for change. They
age 40 came with some risks. But as her joined with other moms and birth workers
doctors saw it, she was a catastrophe to form Black Women Birthing Justice.
waiting to happen. They recommended “I went from focusing on surviving my
tests and interventions that didn’t seem pregnancy to thriving with my child to
right to Oparah, a professor of ethnic realizing I had to make the experience
studies at Mills College, in Oakland, better for others,” Oparah says.
California. When she tried to speak up, They asked women to recall their birth
Chinyere Oparah’s her doctors shut her down. stories. “Hearing these mamas brought
doctors ignored
her wishes. She doesn’t One afternoon, she and her friend us to tears,” Oparah says. A few years
want that to happen Cherisse Harper began trading birth and later, they published these stories in the
to anyone else.
pregnancy stories. Both were flummoxed book Battling Over Birth: Black Women
as to why two otherwise strong, assertive and the Maternal Health Care Crisis,
B L AC K WOMEN women had felt so powerless during this which they use for national political
B IRTHING JUSTIC E time. What was going on? advocacy and as a resource for black
This happened in 2010, before the bias women, midwives, doulas, and doctors.
“I had to make something against black women in maternity care One of these storytellers was Ajira
different happen for others than was well documented. Black women are Darch, who felt bullied into a C-section at
what happened for me.” three to four times as likely to die from age 29. Recounting this experience
pregnancy-related complications as motivated her to become a doula. Says
PURPOSE Improve black women’s white women, according to the Centers Darch: “I am there to remind birthing
pregnancy, childbirth, for Disease Control and Prevention. people that they don’t have to do what
and postpartum experiences
Harper and Oparah wanted to make they’re told, that there’s time and it’s okay
FOUNDED 2011 black women’s birth stories known, then to wait a beat to consider the options.”
THE ALEXIS JOY
TOP: LINDA JONES. BOTTOM: COPYRIGHT © PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 2019, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION.
FOUNDATION
“My wife deserved more.
Everyone deserves more.”
PURPOSE Support women and
families affected by perinatal
mood and anxiety disorders
FOUNDED 2014
Alexis Joy D’Achille knew she needed When Steven D’Achille’s
help. After the birth of her daughter, wife committed suicide shortly
after giving birth to their
she began to feel anxious and distant. daughter, he vowed to help
She couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to other women suffering from
eat. She sought treatment from her postpartum depression.
ob-gyn, the E.R., and psych units. Even
after going to seven facilities, she hadn’t
received the help she needed to
overcome postpartum depression. and I moved in with my parents, and a Health, opened The Alexis Joy D’Achille
Alexis, a woman who had no previous lawyer friend set up a foundation.” Center for Perinatal Mental Health.
history of depression, took her own But he couldn’t find a place where he On the day of the ribbon-cutting
life five weeks after becoming a mom. felt comfortable donating the money. Then ceremony, Heather Peterson came and
Afterward, her husband, Steven, his lawyers introduced him to doctors who begged for help. The birth of her
desperately wanted to find support for worked at a hospital network in Pittsburgh. second child had led to what seemed
women like Alexis. At her funeral, he “I was so fragile. I kept saying, ‘My wife to be insurmountable anxiety. The
asked for donations, and $30,000 deserved more. Everyone deserves more.’ ” doctors quickly devised a plan: She
poured in. “My wife’s story resonated He and the doctors met every week received medication and regular
with people, and I felt immense until four years later, the Alexis Joy one-on-one therapy sessions. “Now, a
pressure to give away the money Foundation, in partnership with the year later, I feel great,” Peterson says.
quickly,” says D’Achille. “My daughter Allegheny Health Network and Highmark “I’m able to enjoy my girls.”
