Christina Elmore says having an all-Black care team made a massive difference when giving birth to her second baby.
via People:
The actress, who plays new mom Condola on HBO’s Insecure, welcomed her second baby, a son, in January, this time opting for the specific midwifery team after having an all-white care team for her first experience with her son, who is now 4½ years old.
In an essay for Women’s Health, Elmore writes that she had “amazing” care before, but “thought it would be so powerful to make a change” for the arrival of her second baby.
“I thought a lot about how I wanted this birth to be different. I didn’t want to fall back on the same decisions just because it’s what I did with my first child,” says Elmore. “I tried to think of this new life as being all his own. How was he going to come into a world that was at the height of the racial reckoning in this country?”
There was “such a difference in my holistic care,” she shares. “This was a group of women who just heard me. I didn’t expect to have that in the medical field — it felt so unique and special.”
About her home birth, Elmore writes, “Both of my midwives were there, and I had a wonderful Black birth photographer, along with my lovely husband, who is white. I felt so supported. Labor is hard for everyone, but I knew that I could focus on that and they would be attuned to my needs.”
“I was lucky that my first birth had that too,” continues the mom of two, “but this time, I was looking across a room that resembled me. These women looked like my mom and my aunties. I felt safe.”
Elmore says she wants people preparing to give birth to “understand that we have options around birth.”
“There’s no wrong way. I hope that other women are able to feel empowered as possible, and listened to and valued as I did. Because we all deserve that,” she adds.
Every mother deserves to feel safe and supported during childbirth — but especially Black mothers.
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