SiX in the Press: Abortion Policy Health Politics & Law Doulas, midwives and lawmakers challenge erasure of Black women in maternal health care
“Black communities have done what we have always done; we have turned to one another,” she said. “We’ve turned to community practices. That’s why you see this emphasis on doulas and midwives, because we know the historical practices and how we have taken care of each other when this country continues or has failed us in the past,” said Jennifer Driver, Senior Director of Reproductive Rights at the State Innovation Exchange.
Driver herself might not be here were it not for the midwife whom she said helped deliver her mother in Alabama in the 1950s. She said her grandmother was barred from giving birth in the white hospital in Birmingham because of segregation and had all 14 of her kids with a midwife.