Being a woman in the world today
A panel of women discuss birth control, family planning and how to make choice on what is best for them.
Transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Let women sort of drive their own health care. Legislation that's promoted by women tends to face higher levels of scrutiny.
I think it's really, really important that we are very conscious of not criticizing
our own bodies in front of our daughters and granddaughters. The incredible resistance of Black women
throughout American history who have continued to reclaim our joy and our ability to create life.
Everything that we have achieved is something that had to be fought for.
Being open about what's available, what we want to continue to be available, that is what is essential.
The best thing you can do is to model the behavior. Focus on the magic and on the beauty and on the joy.
How can we make the conversations around birth control or fertility, et cetera, how can we make these conversations less loaded?
I really do emphasize to my patients that it is very, very important to have these wonderful open conversations--
what are their options? What are their lifestyles? And then we go on from there-- what do you want to do? What is your long-term plan?
What is your short-term plan? You're going off to college, you know? Things like that. Yeah, I would say my biggest pet peeve
is just the lack of education and misinformation that is out there. It's so frustrating, and oftentimes,
even infuriating for me personally, because sometimes the information is just so blatantly wrong. That's right.
And decisions are being made off of this wrong and incorrect information. So that just-- it's really a struggle
for patients and clients, as well as the providers. Can you talk about why it's important to know
what choices we have and even how you feel about that misconception about the options mentioned being only for people who don't want children?
There are two things that I think are really important for health of the individual and society.
Prevention and accountability. So when it comes to birth control and contraception,
that's all part of that same thing. So we want to have healthy pregnancies, prevent problems. If you plan, you're more likely to have a healthy pregnancy
and healthy baby. So you can take the proper vitamins, avoid alcohol, things like that.
You can also get yourself in a position where economically and emotionally you're ready. And in societies where people plan,
they have healthier families. And that's essential. What's essential is that we have the choice.
That's why we all need to speak up. We all need to know what's going on in terms of our bodies and what we want for birth control and family planning.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
We see gender impacting politics in a variety of ways and politics
impacting gender in a variety of ways.
We have the most women in national government in history. So we're sitting at about 27.9% women in congress,
with 25% in the Senate and 28.5% in the House of Representatives. And this is a pretty big deal because just 10 years ago there
were only 100 women across both legislative bodies. And so what we've seen is a pretty marked growth
in the representation of women at the national level. There are just as many women in the electorate that
are qualified to run for office as men. But as we move down the pipeline of a woman going from qualified
to be a candidate to actually considering being a candidate, a lot of women drop out and men don't.
So more men are viewing themselves as qualified to be a candidate. And then from there, what happens is the party serves as a gatekeeper.
So the party decides who their candidates are going to be and we see a drop off there as well.
So we tend to see, again, fewer women are reaching the candidate level and running for office.
There are extra obstacles and extra hurdles for women of color in trying to get elected to government
and being represented. So where white women face gendered stereotypes and perhaps access to funding, Black women
face not only gendered stereotypes, but also racial stereotypes, and also access to funding since we know Black women make
even less than white women when looking at the gender wage gap. This is incredibly important in diversifying viewpoints,
because really, you can't have the best government you can possibly have if voices are excluded from it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
This is stuff no one talks about.
I was unhappy. I was-- my mental health had started being affected. I felt, the easiest way to describe it,
is like a wet cat backed into a corner.
It was in that moment that I completely walked away and I had to rely completely on my faith.
I mean especially because in that moment, we were also being told we couldn't dare open a center and be talking about Black providers
taking care of Black patients. And we wouldn't get any funding to do it. I mean, here we are thriving with that conversation.
So I think that entrepreneurship involves a lot of faith. And I think for me, personally, it's the politics and policy
that I wish I would have known that I had to know and get more involved. I think one of the biggest things that we don't talk
about when we talk about health care especially and increasing the pipeline, is the policies involved.
Every Black midwife can't afford to go to graduate school. Every Black midwife can't afford to take on the debt, right,
or the time if you already have a family. We need our elected officials to get involved, number one,
to get rid of the standard care agreement that we see in Ohio. We're paying a collaborating physician to essentially sign
off on our charts and we get some advice from, but that's a requirement from the state of Ohio, which
limits a lot of Black providers from being able to start their own practices because they don't have the funding to be able to do that,
nor do they have the resources to seek out a collaborating physician. So that's something huge that the standard care
agreement, payment for doulas, and even opening up the scope of midwifery in Ohio that I am especially
starting to get more involved now so that more Black midwives can walk away from these systems,
keep their sanity, and then provide the care that we know that Black women need. [MUSIC PLAYING]
There's so much power in each other [MUSIC PLAYING]
Congratulations, Naomi. No more booing. [MUSIC CONTINUES]
Make some noise for the people, y'all. [MUSIC CONTINUES]
Power will always be to the people. [MUSIC CONTINUES]
What you have to offer is everything that we need. Believe that. [MUSIC PLAYING]
womens health
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