For black men and women, slavery was an equally devastating experience. Both were torn from homeland and family. Both were forced to perform grueling labor, subjected to mental and physical degradation, and denied their most basic rights. Enslaved men and women were beaten mercilessly, separated from loved ones arbitrarily, and, regardless of sex, treated as property in the eyes of the law. Africans on the slave bark Wildfire. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Black Women’s Maternal Health:
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Try out PMC Labs and tell us what you think. Learn More. In this paper we use newly available data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life RDSL study to compare a wide range of attitudes related to pregnancy for Black and white young women. We also investigate the extent to which race differences are mediated by, or net of, family background, childhood socioeconomic status, adolescent experiences related to pregnancy, and current socioeconomic status. Black women are less positive, in general, than white women, toward young non-marital sex, contraception, and childbearing, and have less desire for sex in the upcoming year. This is largely because Black women are more religious than white women, and in part because they are more socioeconomically disadvantaged in young adulthood. However, in spite of these less positive attitudes, Black women are more likely to expect sex without contraception in the next year, and to expect more positive consequences if they were to become pregnant, relative to white women.
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The medical side of how I treat patients is ever changing. Each week brings new research, updated protocols and refined treatment guidelines. One part of this job, however, has stayed the same — the emotion felt when a newborn infant is placed into the arms of her mother for the very first time. Even after all these years of practice, this moment can still bring tears to my eyes. Like most, I am not the same doctor today as I was when I started this journey.
When Ena Miller had a baby last year, she was unprepared for the constant comments about her daughter's appearance. From the day my baby was born she was judged by the colour of her skin. After spending a day and a night in intensive care, Bonnie had been reunited with me for only a few hours when a woman popped her head around the door to ask what I would like for breakfast. Before I could reply, she asked, "Is that your baby? I anticipated the next thing she said would be a compliment - "Isn't she cute! Instead she repeated, "Is that really your baby? Her tone was surprised, slightly shocked. Her use of the word "really" triggered a few alarm bells. Look at her hair, it's so straight. She's so white," she continued.
