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Let me get straight to it:
Tennessee has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country.
That should stop all of us in our tracks. But for me, it hits deeper. As a therapist, as a Black woman, and as a mother — this is more than a headline. It’s personal.
I’ve sat with too many women who’ve had to push through postpartum with no support.
I’ve heard the stories of mothers dismissed when they say something doesn’t feel right.
And I’ve lived parts of it myself…
Women’s health and mental wellness are hot topics in United States politics and media. It seems foreign to discuss women’s health and mental wellness in government spaces, but with the recent formulation of harmful policies, such as abortion bans and black maternal death rates finally being acknowledged, it can be often depressing to be a woman or a new mom of color in our country, as we know it today. Women’s health is at risk, but more specifically black women’s physical health and mental health as it relates to childrearing is at a substantially higher risk. In this blog, I will discuss postpartum depression amongst black women and how often it is underdiagnosed, inequitable healthcare access to receive quality care, and the overall mistrust of Western medicine.
