On February 6th, Paige and I traveled to the LREI high school to interview a senior, Suko Bey. When Suko was in 8th grade, she did a similar topic to ours. Suko focused on solutions for discrimination, like doulas and different prenatal and postpartum care centers. She told us about the organization with which she and her partner interned. Suko also told us about people she talked with, like an OBGYN and she gave us the contact information for the OBGYN. Although she didn’t remember much from her project, she still shared an amazing amount of information. Suko even expressed interest in coming to our Ted Talks when we present.

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On February 5th, Paige and I interviewed Chrissy Sample through Zoom. Chrissy Sample is a mom of two boys who lives in Brooklyn, NY. Chrissy had her first child before the pandemic; he is 12 years old. During the pandemic, Chrissy became pregnant with twins. When you are pregnant with multiple children, you are required to see your doctor twice a week. However, with Chrissy, her doctor’s appointments were not beneficial. Chrissy told us that her doctor’s bedside manner was rude and indifferent. When Chrissy would ask a question about her health, the doctor would say, “It’s all relative.” Chrissy told us she had no idea what this meant, but the doctor would not explain anything to her. Chrissy told us that she did not want to initially jump to the conclusion that she was being discriminated against, but eventually, it became clear that that was the case. Chrissy said that she began to feel neglected by her doctor but there was nothing she could do because the entire world was dealing with a highly infectious virus. She could not change doctors and she could not receive proper prenatal care.

Chrissy also discussed the cost of having a baby in the United States. Paige and I were both shocked that it could cost up to 40 thousand dollars to give birth. Insurance will cover most of this cost, but you are still left with 3 to 5 thousand dollars in debt to the hospital. Even if money is not an issue, access may be. Women need proper prenatal, birthing, and postpartum care, which is not offered and is accessible everywhere, especially in less wealthy areas.

We discussed so many issues over our 40-minute interview that were helpful to our research and provided a lot of insight into our topic. We closed the interview by asking Chrissy, “How can we help?”. She told us the most important thing we can do is keep learning, build a community, and then educate the community. If we can teach more people about these stereotypes and the stigma involved, it will bring more awareness. Our conversation was extremely heavy and taught us the importance of having everyone tell their story.

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On January 8th Paige and I met with Jenna DiMarino, the school nurse for the lower and middle school at LREI. We asked her about her previous experiences in nursing. She shared with us that she used to work at a hospital in the pediatric ICU. She would work with children from as early as right when they were born, all the way until they were eighteen years old. We asked her if she had witnessed or heard about patients facing discrimination while she was working at the hospital. Jenna told us “I have been lucky that I haven’t worked with anyone that I feel has been discriminatory…I think that’s something that as we’re progressing, we get a lot better at…but I have heard stories, for sure”. She also mentioned that older teenage patients and mothers, specifically from minorities, have shared with her that previously their pain had not been handled properly or that this was the first time they felt comfortable and attended to. Jenna shared so much knowledge with us. Something that resonated with me is the fact that some adolescents and adults have never felt comfortable and heard from doctors or the people who were taking care of them. Based on the things Jenna told us, I am interested in talking to organizations that can share even deeper information with us. This interview was extremely beneficial.

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