01/28/2026
I wrote this exactly one year ago and it feels even more true today.
"For many years, I have considered that the work I do as a birth worker IS an act of resistance. But this has grown more and more as the years have passed. And now, more than ever, you better believe that this profession is one of my acts of resistance. Birth is at the direct intersection of multiple important social issues, including race, ethnicity, class, power, and SO much more. Any marginalized group of people statistically are the most likely to experience oppression during pregnancy/birth, including things such as obstetrical violence -- this has been true historicallly and it's still true today.
Today a childbirth class participant told me how thankful she is to learn specific strategies to better advocate for herself as a patient, and how simply being reminded of her rights goes a long ways. She continued in describing what we birth workers know all too well: when someone perceived as an "authority figure" tells you to do something, it can be challenging to say no to that. Then, she made the direct comparison to the police and how more people are learning about their rights when interacting with the police. I then told her how right she was and why that parallel was so important, because we are often culturally-conditioned to percived both medical professionals and law enforcement as so-called authority figures. There's always great risk for the abuse of power when any group of people is perceived as "authority figures." There's so many crucial similarities when looking at the risk of violence and death for black & brown folks in the US when interacting with police, just like black/brown people and their babies statistically have the highest rate of mortality during birth and postpartum as a result of systemic racism within the medical system. The intersection of these types of issues is something that cannot and should not be ignored.
Birth workers have the opportunity to be agents of change. But we must be willing to step up, accept that responsibility, and embrace the discomfort if we really want to see meaningful changes happen in the long-term."
--Sarah Baker, PLD Team Leader
