New documentary puts spotlight on Black maternal healthcare

[0:00] And welcome back. This week is Black Maternal Health Week aimed at raising awareness about [0:04] improving the health of racial and ethnic minority communities and working to address [0:08] the inequities when it comes to health care for black mothers and for black babies. [0:13] So joining me now is filmmaker Imei Aliquiva. He's the director of the documentary The Ebony Canal [0:17] and also Dr. Jessica Shepard, chief medical officer of HERS, board certified gynecologist [0:23] and a woman's health expert. Thank you both for being here. This is such an important conversation [0:27] that we are having. And Dr. Shepard, I want to start with you. Talk to us about some of the root [0:31] causes of the disparities that we are seeing within the health care system as it pertains to [0:36] black women. Now when we think of black women and how it pertains to maternal mortality, we do know [0:43] that there is a very large gap in what we see with the ability to provide the health care that [0:48] is actually readily available in the United States. So what contributes to this is things such as the [0:54] epidemic of health morbidities and comorbidities such as hypertension and diabetes that can actually [1:01] impact women during pregnancy. But even more than that is the access and resources that are not offered [1:07] to black women when they are in these crises. And this is really where we need to optimize or make these [1:14] resources more available to women as they enter into the pregnancy state and even in the postpartum area. [1:20] Yeah, there's a lot of work to do here. And Emei, your film, The Ebony Canal, explores the hurt, the [1:24] healing, but also the hope around black pregnancy. And it's told with very powerful stories. I want our [1:30] viewers to take a look at this. [1:35] Zory was born September 22nd. He was completely fine. I got to see him. They had no concerns. [1:44] The next day, I got dressed to go to see him. By the time I got down there and they let me [1:52] see him, they were working on him and they started pumping his chest. [2:04] It's just powerful there. And I know it takes so much for those women to come forward and share [2:08] their stories. Tell me why it was important for you to create this film and also why it was so [2:13] important for those women to speak up to. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us on your show. [2:19] It was important to tell the story because we have to control our narratives when it comes to this [2:24] subject matter. And to be able to feature, you know, Larissa Lane, Alana Isola Daly, Mariah [2:31] Peoples, and Rachel Strader and more, I saw something about this. And, you know, we have to [2:40] take, I mean, it takes all of us to really put this all together. [2:44] To really work on this was truly transformative for my life. And being able to change these numbers, [2:53] you know, of black and brown women three times likely to die during childbirth, you know, [3:00] white counterparts. And then black babies, you know, dying two and a half times that of their white [3:07] counterparts before the age of one. So this was important. Yeah, those numbers are just staggering. [3:12] I know I have one last question for each of you because this is a critical week where we're raising [3:16] awareness about this. And I want to talk about actions. I mean, what can communities do to rally [3:21] behind black mothers and not just during their pregnancy, but also after? Dr. Shever, I'll start [3:27] with you. One, we have community within when we think of people of color within their actual community. [3:35] But I even want to make community broader because everyone is responsible when we think of this high [3:40] mortality rate that we see in a country that really should not have as many maternal deaths as they do. [3:46] So the lack of progress makes all of us responsible. And I think that movies like this and films like [3:52] bring the personal emotional response to what is happening in these communities and taking it out of the [3:58] textbook and out of the statistics and realizing that these are individuals' lives. [4:03] Imeh, what's your call to action for people who are listening? [4:05] You know, our call to action, of course, you know, with Black Maternal Health Week, we're all [4:11] over the country screening during community activations. And we're putting together a global [4:18] birth equity tour in which we have 20 stops all around the country, including Cairns Film Festival [4:25] in May. So we want people to be a vessel. We want people to, you know, the doulas, the midwives, [4:33] you know, our partner organizations like Birth Fund for Care for Moms, also Earth App. We have to [4:40] step up in order to step into a new wave of eradicating this situation that's 84 percent preventable. [4:48] Yeah. You know, I so appreciate the time. This is an important conversation, not just this week, [4:53] but also every week of the year, as so many are focused on tackling this disparity. [4:58] Thank you both for joining us on this Sunday. We really appreciate it. [5:01] Absolutely. Thank you. [5:02] Thanks.