Last year, 3.7 million babies were born in the US,
though technically most of those babies
took one look around the US and immediately noped to Norway.
But for some people, giving birth to a bundle of joy
can also be a bundle of stress and fear.
I tried to find out why.
Sometime between giving your dad a tie he already has and July
4th barbecues, Roe v. Wade will be overturned and charred
like ribs on the grill.
And even for people who actually want to have a baby,
things aren't much better.
And because America, it's especially
difficult for Black women.
REPORTER: Black women are at least three times
more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause
than white women.
SAMANTHA BEE: So I met Dr. Joia Crear-Perry,
a reproductive health expert and OB/GYN at a brand new birthing
facility in DC, to explain the absolute hell
of giving birth in this country for Black people.
So we know that Black people are about three to four times
more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts
despite income, education, geography, weight.
We also know in some places, like New York City,
it could be 8 to 12 times as likely.
I am not a mathematician, but I do know that those numbers
are not OK numbers.
And they're happening because racism is a health risk
for Black people in America.
Doctors not believing Black women about their bodies
are affecting the birthing outcomes
of everyday Black women, to super famous Black women,
and even women who are literally experts in the field.
In medical school, I had a baby who only
weighed about a pound, my son.
The reason I had my baby early is because of racism.
I had good health insurance.
I was healthy.
So on the risk factor list, the only risk factor
I had was being Black.
So what did you say to yourself in that moment?
Oh my god.
I had to breathe.
I had to go woo-sa.
I've had a few children, so I understand
about deep breathing. - Exactly.
SAMANTHA BEE: And you're going to need a deep breath
to get through this next stat.
More mommies die within a year of childbirth
in the United States than any other rich nation.
We are the only high-income nation where the numbers are
getting worse and not better.
How can the richest country in the world
operate in this fashion?
In the United States, we have large swaths that
have no access to health care.
SAMANTHA BEE: In 2020, millions of Americans
lived in counties without care, which
is why many are stuck taking medical advice from the "Grey's
Anatomy" doctors.
But this isn't just a problem in rural areas.
If you live in DC, there are not hospitals
in major parts of the city.
In fact, in Wards 7 and 8, there are
no hospitals that have access to a labor
and delivery in those places.
No labor and delivery?
And many people don't own cars,
so they're having to take a bus or take public transportation.
Can you imagine being in labor--
And hopping on a city bus.
Exactly.
In DC--
In DC, all right.
--where everything's a circle.
Exactly.
But how did we end up here?
To what do you attribute the numbers actually getting worse.
Yeah, well, it's racism, and also gender oppression.
So when you add both, that we don't care for women very much
in this country and we do a terrible job caring for people
of color, those two things, you get the worst
outcomes in the world.
You get policy decisions like shutting
down hospitals where the people who live have the most births.
Why don't we just sit here for a second.
We can just, like--
just run a list of things that we
are willing to invest in, but not
in good maternal health care.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
It's a long list.
There's a lot of torpedoes on that list.
We're really good at that.
For the last time, we don't need more things shaped like dicks.
We need hospital funding that goes to underserved communities
and not just the same hospitals that have
always had the most access.
And by that, I mean the whitest ones.
Aside from a complete overhaul of
how America has done everything forever, what can we do?
It's called respectful care.
I'm not sure that Republicans can grapple with the word
respectful or care.
So not this, you will respect me and listen to what I say.
But it's valuing the people who are closest to the injury--
reproductive health requires that you
see us as fully human if you're going to make policy around it.
So if we say we don't want have any kids, you don't say,
oh my god, you must procreate.
You say, no, how do I support you in that decision?
That's a very different orientation
than how we currently practice, and that's respectful care.
Maybe we need to whisper "respectful care"
so Florida doesn't try to ban it.
You know, I'm tired of the whisper campaigns,
so we're going to make it loud. - Loud.
Loud.
We're going to be loud and angry.
SAMANTHA BEE: Loud and angry?
That was my high school superlative.
But there's something more concrete than that.
Along with legislators and other organizations,
Dr. Joia and the National Birth Equity Collaborative
helped draft the Momnibus Bill, which demands the government
invest in doulas, midwives, and birthing centers
like the one we're sitting in now.
We are in this beautiful facility that is the Community
of Hope's birth center.
It's a low-resource community, and they can have
birthing in their community.
They can walk here.
They wouldn't have to take the bus.
And this is possible--
It's possible.
--in other places.
It is.
We need to replicate it over and over
again because we know that there are communities who are dying.
The mamas are having to go so far just to have a baby.
So to have care close to home, to have people who
look like you from your community care for you,
that's a blessing.
Which is why when I gave birth,
I needed all the nurses to wear blazers.
Now what we need is a plan for when Roe v. Wade is
overturned that isn't an automatic death
sentence for Black mothers.
That means listening to those closest to the problem,
shouting respectful care, urging our legislators
to pass the Momnibus Act, and putting more money
into birth workers and birthing centers
in communities that need it.
Are you listening?
We'll be right back.