Name: Suko Bey

Social Justice Group: 2020-2021, Women and Reproductive Rights

Date of Fieldwork: January 29, 2021

Name of Organization:

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Alison Jacobs, CEO of First Candle.

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

Reflection:

What I did:

What I learned:

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

I interviewed Alison Jacobs the CEO of First Candle, an organization that supports families and preventing SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.) While interviewing Alison Jacobs I learned more about SIDS and what First Candle does to prevent the deaths of babies. Alison Jacobs talked about her experience with home visits where women have medical professionals to check in on them during there first year of being a parent. Jacobs explained about how Maternal Heath isn’t focused on in the United States compared to other countries. The US Government doesn’t put funding into new mothers that are in need of the right supplies when caring for a new baby. It has become so expensive to give birth which leads to many unsafe and unprofessional at home births. Alison Jacobs discussed her experience when her son Conner passed at birth. She told us how heart breaking it was for her to have her child die so young. She created First Candle to prevent the horrible feeling that she had to experience of child death. Jacobs also talked about Doulas, which are women instructed to support and guide women through child birth. Doula’s have become very un-affordable and aren’t available to many people going through childbirth. Alison Jacobs talked about how unfairly women have been treated by the government and when it comes to childbirth it can become so unfair. Especially if you are a Black women, she gave us many statistics about the unfair treatment between white women and women of color. I learned so much about SIDS and how unfair maternal care is in the US from Alison Jacobs, it was such a great privilege to speak with her about her work and her personal experience with Maternal Health.