Speaking Up for Black Mamas!
The American Congress of Obstetricians and
Gynecologist is having their annual meeting in Austin
Texas April 27-29, 2018. ACOG is the pre-eminent organization of physicians practicing in women's health. The meeting is focusing very little on maternal mortality, infant mortality and the negative birth outcome disparity that exists for black women and infants. My colleague Marsha Jones (Executive Director of The
Afiya Center in Dallas) and I want to have a booth in the
exhibit hall and raise awareness of these disparities and share our vision for how to positively impact the problem.
Marsha and I both run organizations (I recently started the Healing Hands Community Doula Project) that educate and train black women to serve black childbearing women, as well as educate the public on high rates of maternal and infant mortality in the black community, the high rates of preterm labor, prematurity and low birth weight infants. It is IMPERATIVE that we bring awareness to the doctors of ACOG about how maternal and infant mortality affects our communities, what resources are needed to address these issues, what needs to be done, what we'd like to see THEM DO, and why black women MUST be not only involved in the solution, but leading the charge!
We need to secure the booth as soon as possible, but by March 31, 2018. Please help us be a formidable presence at ACOG!!
Thanks so much for your support.