Building better births

Bernice Sims wouldn’t have traded her birth experience for anything.

“The only thing I was allowed to pick up was my baby,” said Sims, a consultant for the Homeplace program at Birth Justice Collaborative, who described how various “aunts, cousins and nieces,” helped make her maternal experience comfortable.

But Cyreta Oduniyi, COO of Homeplace, was put off by her birth experiences in Minnesota hospitals. During the birth of her child, Howard was worried about her safety and that of baby after hearing “all of the horrific stories” from Black women about hospitals in the state.

There are numbers to back up those stories.

Black individuals are 2.3 times more likely to die during pregnancy or childbirth than white individuals according to the Minnesota Department of Health. In a recent survey by Blue Cross Blue Shield, 59% of Black Minnesotans also describe discrimination as a key factor in their health outcomes.

It’s for this reason that the Birth Justice Collaborative (BJC) formed. The collaborative works to address maternal health disparities for Black and Indigenous Minnesotans by providing a community that supports mothers from pregnancy to postpartum and beyond.

The Rev. Alika Galloway, CEO of Homeplace, explains that the problems are the result of decades of white supremacy and exclusion of Black people.

“We’re really talking about a system of thought here, and a philosophical view that only white human beings have the right to be exclusive and that they alone are human,” she said.

Furthermore, she explains, white supremacy has kept African American traditions out of the equation. For many in the community, this denial of Black culture is the root of the maternal health crisis.

“We have forgotten that all of us are human beings and that therefore all of us deserve the same treatment,” Galloway said.

BJC seeks to be the antidote to this problem. They include cultural knowledge in their effort to change health care policies and provide support for mothers.

Childbirth is a difficult process and many hospitals work to ensure basic needs are met for mothers, yet Black mothers are still left vulnerable. BJC’s priority is providing the compassionate care that the Minnesota health care system lacks.

“Health encompasses so much more than the physical,” said Leslie Hayes. “You can be alive, but if you’re severely depressed, your baby is suffering, you’re suffering. Like, you’re lacking the connection that’s supposed to happen after birth.”

BJC aims to be the community that mothers need from pregnancy to postnatal.

“Our goal is to have an environment where when people walk into it, they feel the stress being released from their body,” Bernice Sims said. “A place where they feel loved, cared for, nurtured.”

They provide mothers with the community they need through initiatives such as Homeplace, a program that utilizes cultural and personal knowledge to uplift new mothers.

“Homeplace has been designed and established by a communal ethic and a communal collection of culture,” Galloway said.

Through Homeplace, mothers have a space that they can rely on throughout the birthing process and exchange valuable stories.

Galloway explained that while academic sources are valid, personal experience and stories are of equal importance.

“Within all of us is collective wisdom. Part of what Homeplace does is that it gives you permission and encourages you to pull up your collective wisdom and bring that to the table,” Galloway continued.

BJC strives to appreciate the importance of academic knowledge while still maintaining the same value of personal knowledge.

“What is written in our heart and what is written in our mind is as important as what is written in a book,” Galloway said.

Additional reporting for this story was done by India Rutten and Amira Ahmed.