Name: Meadow Magee

Social Justice Group: Maternal/Fetal Care

Date of Fieldwork: November 28, 2017

Name of Organization: Choices in Child Birth

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Nan Strauss

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We walked over to the EMC headquarters for an interview with Nan Strauss. She recently joined Every Mother Counts from Choices in child birth. We sat down with her and discussed the difference in her work, the problem at hand, and why mothers need help.

What I learned:

We learned about AAAQ, accessibility, availability, acceptability, and Quality. Those are the problems that all birth centers and hospitals encounter. In the U.S., African American females are 4 times as likely to die during child birth than white females. Most of the work that Nan did before joining CIC was to do with changing laws. They actually ended up changing Plan B to have no prescription needed. 50% of all counties in the U.S. don’t have any birth centers, dulas, midwifes, or an Obstetrician.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

Many laws need to be changed and that is a whole field of work that Nan did. It’s stressful but it is needed for other groups to progress in helping mothers. Another point that Nan brought up was that the mothers don’t feel empowered to ask for what they need. Females feel bad when asking for what they want if it is against the doctors judgment. I believe that this is because females feel vulnerable during birth. The dulas help the females feel more relaxed and confident.