Birthing Justice

Alicia D. Bonaparte is Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College and is a medical sociologist whose research examines the gendered social hierarchy within US medicine and the intersection of race and gender in healthcare practices and disparities. She contributed to The Routledge Companion to Motherhood and Black Feminist Sociology (also published by Routledge) and is completing her book manuscript, Labors of Birthing Work: The Persecution and Prosecution of Granny Midwives, 1900–1940. Julia Chinyere Oparah ("Chinyere") is a social justice educator, activist scholar, and transformational leader. She is Professor and Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs at the University of San Francisco and Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies at Mills College. Chinyere is co-founder of Black Women Birthing Justice. She is author and editor of numerous publications, including Battling Over Birth, Birthing Justice (first edition), Global Lockdown: Race, Gender and the Prison-Industrial Complex, Activist Scholarship, and Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption. She lives in Oakland, California, with her partner and daughter.

Introduction: Beyond Coercion and Malign Neglect: Black Women and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Julia Chinyere Oparah with Black Women Birthing Justice

Section I: Birthing Histories






Queen Elizabeth Perry Turner: "Granny Midwife," 1931-1956 by Darline Turner



Regulating Childbirth: Physicians and Granny Midwives in South Carolina by Alicia D. Bonaparte



Speak Their Names: The Power of Sankofa to Reclaim Black Midwifery by Michelle Drew
Section II: Beyond Medical versus Natural: Redefining Birth Injustice




An Abolitionist Mama Speaks: On Natural Birth and Miscarriage by Viviane Saleh-Hanna



Mothering: A Post-C-Section Journey by Jacinda Townsend



Confessions of a Black Pregnant Dad by Syrus Marcus Ware



Reclaiming Breastfeeding and Protecting Black Infant Health by Kimberly Allers Seale



Birth Justice and Population Control by Loretta J. Ross



Beyond Silence and Stigma: Pregnancy and HIV for Black Women in Canada by Marvelous Muchenje and Victoria Logan Kennedy



What I Carry: A Story of Love and Loss by Iris Jacob



Sheltering in Community: Re-imagining Black birth during the COVID-19 pandemic by Jennifer A. James, Julia Chinyere Oparah and Alexus Roane



Images from the Safe Motherhood Quilt
Section III: Changing Lives, One Birth at a Time




This is How we Fight: Black Mamas and Breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic by TaNefer L. Camara



Birthing Sexual Freedom and Healing: A Survivor Mother's Birth Story by Biany Pérez



Birth as Battle Cry: A Doula's Journey from Home to Hospital by Gina Mariela Rodríguez



Sister Midwife: Nurturing and Reflecting Black Womanhood in an Urban Hospital by Stephanie Etienne



WAJAMAMA: Transforming Childbirth in Zanzibar through Holistic Midwifery Care by Nafisa Jiddawi



A Love Letter to My Daughter: Love as a Political Act by Haile Eshe Cole



New Visions in Birth, Intimacy, Kinship, and Sisterly Partnerships by Shannon Gibney and Valerie Deus



I Am My Hermana's Keeper: Reclaiming Afro-Indigenous Ancestral Wisdom as a Doula by Griselda Rodriguez



The First Cut Is the Deepest: A Mother-Daughter Conversation about Birth, Justice, Healing, and Love by Pauline Ann McKenzie-Day and Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Section IV: Taking Back Our Power: Organizing for Birth Justice




Unexpected Allies: Obstetrician Activism, VBACs, and the Birth Justice Movement by Christ-Ann Magloire and Julia Chinyere Oparah



Becoming an Outsider-Within: Jennie Joseph's Activism in Florida Midwifery by Alicia D. Bonaparte and Jennie Joseph



Embodied Abolitionism: Prisons, Pregnancy, and the Struggle for Birth Justice by Priscilla A. Ocen and Julia Chinyere Oparah



Lifting Up Black Doulas: Black Women Organizing to Reimagine Birthwork by Linda Jones, Monica R. McLemore and Sayida Peprah-Wilson



Black Mamas Matter: How Black Women Built a National Movement for Black Maternal Health, Rights and Justice by Elizabeth Dawes Gay



Expanding a Transnational Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Wellbeing by Joia Crear-Perry, Kelly Davis, Ana Barreto, and Aja Clark