Book

In Medical Bondage, Cooper Owens examines a wide range of scientific literature and less formal communications in which gynecologists created and disseminated medical fictions about their patients, such as their belief that black enslaved women could withstand pain better than white “ladies.” Even as they were advancing medicine, these doctors were legitimizing, for decades to come, groundless theories related to whiteness and blackness, men and women, and the inferiority of other races or nationalities.

Medical Bondage: Race Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology | Deirdre Cooper Owens | University of Georgia Press | 2021 | 182 pages | ISBN: 978-0820351346 | WorldCat |  

Author

Deirdre Cooper Owens, an award-winning historian and popular public speaker, is the Charles and Linda Wilson Professor in the History of Medicine and Director of the Humanities in Medicine Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In this position, Dr. Cooper Owens is one of two Black women in the U.S. running a medical humanities program. She earned her Ph.D. in history at UCLA and has had a number of prestigious fellowships at the University of Virginia, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and as a Big Ten Academic Leadership Fellow. Dr. Cooper Owens is also the Director of the Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731. As one of the country's most "acclaimed experts in U.S. history," according to Time Magazine, Cooper Owens is steadily working towards making history more accessible and inspiring for all. 

Official Website of Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens

Book

"Pregnant While Black is a hopeful exploration of the issues pregnant Black women face in America. Within these pages, Dr. Rainford draws on over twenty years of experience working in obstetrics and gynecology to offer a primer on Black pregnancies and how to better care for them. She shares the successes and testimonies of Black women who have struggled during pregnancy and childbirth, anchoring the stories of these women with carefully researched facts. Despite medical advances over the last twenty years, for Black women, the overwhelming dangers of carrying and delivering children remain and it only seems to be getting worse." -- from the publisher's website

Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America | Dr. Monique Rainford | Broadleaf Books | Publication date April 11, 2023 | 245 pages | ISBN: 978-1506487618 | Bookshop.org

Author

Monique Rainford, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with over twenty years' experience. An award-winning graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School, she is currently an assistant professor at Yale Medicine. Her writing about maternal and other health disparities experienced by Black women has been featured in multiple publications, including Afro, Elephant Journal, and the Hartford Courant, and her broader work related to women's health and wellness has been featured in the South Florida Times, the Baltimore Sun, Thought Catalog, and the Journal of Reproductive Medicine. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children. 

Official Website of Dr. Monique Rainford

Book

"The first book to tell the full story of race and health in America today, showing the toll racism takes on individuals and the health of our nation, by a groundbreaking journalist at the New York Times Magazine"-- Provided by publisher

A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR |  J Anthony Lukas Book Prize Winner  | NYPL Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism Finalist

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation | Linda Villarosa | Doubleday | 2022 | 288 pages | ISBN: 978-0385544887 | WorldCat |  

Author

Linda Villarosa is a journalist, an educator and a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine. She covers the intersection of race, justice and public health. She is a former executive editor at Essence Magazine, and her essay on medical myths was included in the Pulitzer-Prize winning 1619 Project. Her 2018 New York Times Magazine article "Why America's Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis" was a finalist for the National Magazine Award. Linda is a professor at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY with a joint appointment at the City College of New York. 

Official Website of Linda Villarosa

Book

Black women have higher rates of premature birth than other women in America. This cannot be simply explained by economic factors, with poorer women lacking resources or access to care. Even professional, middle-class black women are at a much higher risk of premature birth than low-income white women in the United States. Dána-Ain Davis looks into this phenomenon, placing racial differences in birth outcomes into a historical context, revealing that ideas about reproduction and race today have been influenced by the legacy of ideas which developed during the era of slavery.

Winner, 2020 Senior Book Prize, given by the Association of Feminist Anthropology | Winner, 2020 Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, given by the Society for Medical Anthropology | Honorable Mention, 2020 Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, given by the Society for Humanistic Anthropology | Finalist, 2020 PROSE Award in the Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology category, given by the Association of American Publishers

Reproductive Injustice | Dána-Ain Davis | NYU Press | 2019 | 272 pages | ISBN: 978-1479853571 | WorldCat |  

Author

Dána-Ain Davis is Director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society at the Graduate Center, CUNY (New York). She is the author of Battered Black Women and Welfare Reform: Between a Rock and Hard Place.

Queens College Faculty Page for Dána-Ain Davis

Book

Like many first-time mothers, Rebecca Stone finds herself both deeply in love with her newborn son and deeply overwhelmed. Struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood with her own aspirations and feeling utterly alone in the process, she reaches out to the only person at the hospital who offers her any real help—Priscilla Johnson—and begs her to come home with them as her son’s nanny.

Priscilla’s presence quickly does as much to shake up Rebecca’s perception of the world as it does to stabilize her life. Rebecca is white, and Priscilla is black, and through their relationship, Rebecca finds herself confronting, for the first time, the blind spots of her own privilege. She feels profoundly connected to the woman who essentially taught her what it means to be a mother. When Priscilla dies unexpectedly in childbirth, Rebecca steps forward to adopt the baby. But she is unprepared for what it means to be a white mother with a black son. As she soon learns, navigating motherhood for her is a matter of learning how to raise two children whom she loves with equal ferocity, but whom the world is determined to treat differently.

Recommended Book of 2018 by Buzzfeed, The Boston Globe,The Millions, InStyle, Southern Living, Vogue, Popsugar,  Kirkus, The Washington Post, Library Journal, Real Simple, NPR

That Kind of Mother | Rumaan Alam | Ecco | 2019 | 304 pages | ISBN: 978-0062667618 | WorldCat |  

Author

Rumaan Alam is the author of the novels Rich and Pretty, That Kind of Mother, and the instant New York Times bestseller Leave the World Behind. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Bookforum, and the New Republic, where he is a contributing editor. He studied writing at Oberlin College and lives in New York with his family.

Official Website of Rumaan Alam

Book

Tailored to today’s pregnant Black woman. In the age of social media, how do pregnant women communicate their big announcement? What are the best protective hairstyles for labor? Most importantly, how many pregnancy guides focus on issues like Black maternal birth rates and what it really looks like to be Black, pregnant, and single today? Written for the modern pregnant Black woman, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! is the essential companion to understanding pregnancy from a millennial Black mom’s point of view.

Interviews, stories, and advice for pregnant women. Written by Black Moms Blog founder, Shanicia Boswell, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! manages to tackle some hard topics in a way that truly resonate with modern Black moms. With stories from her experiences through pregnancy, labor, delivery, and motherhood, and lessons learned as a mother at twenty-two, Oh Sis, You’re Pregnant! focuses on the common knowledge Black pregnant mothers should consider when having their first baby. It also shares topics beneficial to pregnant women on their second, third, or fourth born. Inside, you’ll find answers to questions like:

• How do I financially plan for my impending birth?
• How can I maintain my relationship and friendships during motherhood?
• How will I self-advocate for my rights in a world that already views me as less than?

2021 International Book Awards finalist in Health: Women’s Health | #1 New Release in Pregnancy & Childbirth and Minority Demographic Studies, Medical Ethics, and Women's Health Nursing

Oh, Sis, You're Pregnant! | Shanicia Boswell | Mango | 2021 | 338 pages | ISBN: 978-1642504989 | WorldCat |

Author

In the midst of running her global parenting community of over half a million women, Black Moms Blog, and retreat company, The Self Care Retreats, Shanicia Boswell is an advocate for Black parenting, diversity, and helping women learn to put themselves first.

Official Website of Shanicia Boswell

Book

"By distilling the common and diverse threads from over 100 black women, researchers from the Black Women Birthing Justice have woven a multi-faceted tapestry reflecting what black women view as important and central to optimal birth experiences. Their recommendations for improving care and outcomes are grounded in black women’s authoritative knowledge. This wonderful, important, necessary research by and for black women points in the direction that black women think we should go to ensure they have safe, healthy, and satisfying birth experiences and outcomes. We need to listen and act." -- Christine Morton, PhD, author, Birth Ambassadors: Doulas and the Re-Emergence of Woman-Supported Birth in America

"... reveals hard truths—powerful findings on the role of racism, coercion, inadequate prenatal care, the pressures undermining breastfeeding, and the lack of access to alternatives to a broken maternal healthcare system as the key threads of Black women’s birth experiences." --Kimberly Seals Allers, MS, is an award-winning journalist, author, and an internationally recognized speaker, consultant, and advocate for maternal and infant health.​

Battling Over Birth: Black Women and the Maternal Health Care Crisis | Julia Chinyere Oparah; Helen Arega; Dantia Hudson; Linda Jones; Talita Osegueral | Praeclarus Press: Excellence in Women's Health |  2018 | 206 pages | ISBN: 978-1946665119 | WorldCat 

Authors

A collaboration of the Black Women Birthing Justice (BWBJ), a collective of African-American, African, Caribbean, and multiracial women who are committed to transforming birthing experiences for black women and transfolks.

Chinyere Oparah began her tenure as Provost and Dean of the Faculty on January 1, 2017, after serving for almost twenty years on the Mills College faculty. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, raised in the South of England and with roots in SE Nigeria, Oparah’s educational background includes the study of languages, literature, philosophy, sociology, ethnic studies, and community development. She received her BA and MA in modern and medieval languages from Cambridge University, Postgraduate Diploma in community practice from Luton University, MA in the race and ethnic studies from Warwick University, and Ph.D. in sociology with a focus on black women’s civic engagement from Warwick University.

Helen Arega is a traditional birth attendant, activist, and educator. She is a member of Black Women Birthing Justice and currently serves as the Roots of Labor Doula Coordinator. Helen was born in Ethiopia and immigrated to the US when she was 4 yrs. old. While she has spent most of her life in US she is very passionate about birth justice issues on a global scale, specifically in Afrika. She describes herself as calm, passionate, reliable, and organized. Sending love and light!

Dantia Hudson is a Birth and Postpartum Doula, Breastfeeding Educator, and Yoga Instructor. She attended UC Berkeley for her undergraduate degree where she majored in Sociology and received a Masters in Public Health in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University. She works as a public health researcher focusing on improving health outcomes for all communities and teaches an undergraduate public health course at Mills College. She is a member of the Black Women’s Birthing Justice and a BirthWays Board Member. Dantia enjoys arts and crafts projects in her spare time and loves spending time outside in the California sun; she resides in Oakland.

Linda Jones (formerly Jones-Mixon)is a Birth and Postpartum Doula and mother of two who lives in Oakland, CA. She founded and owned Waddle and Swaddle Baby Boutique and Resource Center in Berkeley, CA, and has been a part of the natural birth advocacy community in the Bay Area for over two decades. She belongs to Sistahs of the Good Birth, a group of Black Doulas who work with low-income mothers. She was one of the founders of a volunteer Doula group that provided services for low-income, uninsured, and teen moms that birthed at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.

Talita Oseguera is a doula and a student in the University of California San Diego's nursing and midwifery program.

Book

When Nefertiti Austin, a single African American woman, decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster-care system, she was unprepared for the fact that there is no place for Black women in the “mommy wars.” Austin set off on her path without the ability to seek guidance from others who looked like her or shared her experience. She soon realized that she would not only have to navigate skepticism from the adoption community, who deal almost exclusively with white women but surprisingly, from her own family and friends as well. Motherhood So White is the story of Nefertiti’s fight to create the family she always knew she was meant to have and the story of motherhood that all American families need now.

Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America | Nefertiti Austin | Sourcebooks | 2019 | 304 pages | ISBN: 978-1492679011 | WorldCat |  

Author

Nefertiti Austin writes about the erasure of diverse voices in motherhood. Her work around this topic has been short-listed for literary awards and appeared in the Huffington Post, HuffPost Live, and The Atlantic. Nefertiti’s expertise stems from firsthand experience and degrees in U.S. history and African American studies.

Official Website of Nefertiti Austin

Book

In We Live for the We, first-time mother, Dani McClain, sets out to understand how to raise her daughter in what she, as a black woman, knows to be an unjust–even hostile–society. Black women are more likely to die during pregnancy or birth than any other race; black mothers must stand before television cameras telling the world that their slain children were human beings. What, then, is the best way to keep fear at bay and raise a child so she lives with dignity and joy? McClain spoke with mothers on the frontlines of movements for social, political, and cultural change who are grappling with the same questions. Following a child’s development from infancy to the teenage years, We Live for the We touches on everything from the importance of creativity to building a mutually supportive community to navigating one’s relationship with power and authority. It is an essential handbook to help us imagine the society we build for the next generation.

We Live for the We: The Political Power of Black Motherhood | Dani McClain | Bold Type Books | 2019 | 272 pages | ISBN: 978-1568588544 | WorldCat |  

Author

Dani McClain reports on race and reproductive health. She is a contributing writer at The Nation and a fellow with Type Media Center. McClain’s writing has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, TIME, The Atlantic, Slate, Colorlines, EBONY.com, and The Rumpus. In 2018, she received a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. Her work has been recognized by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. McClain was a staff reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and has worked as a strategist with organizations including Color of Change and Drug Policy Alliance.

Official Website of Dani McClain