Black Moms Bring Questions, Accountability (And A Party Bus) To LA Hospitals

On a recent Friday morning, a group of Black women with pregnant bellies step onto a party bus in Leimert Park.

They’re headed on a tour of birthing centers and hospitals around Los Angeles, in style: leather seats, good music, mood lighting that shifts colors.

“This program is essentially an opportunity for you all to get resources, connect, build a village… because it takes a village,” says guide Gabrielle Brown as the group takes off. Brown is the maternal and infant health program manager with Black Women For Wellness , which created the expedition.

The tour started this year during Black Maternal Health Week, and shows Black birthing parents resources in their communities and the different birthing options available around Los Angeles. The goal is to help equip them on how to self-advocate. In California, Black pregnant people are three to four times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related issues.

While the tour is just getting started, that topic is top of mind for the women on the bus.

“Equity in healthcare is a very big thing for our community, like, we're so underserved and it's just ridiculous,” says Candace Cosey in a discussion with the other expecting parents. “Like, people are dying.”

Last year, for instance, April Valentine , a 31-year-old mother, died at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood while giving birth to her daughter. Soon after a state investigation , the hospital closed its maternity ward . In 2016, another mom, Kira Johnson, died after giving birth at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

“It's important for us at Black Women for Wellness to host these programs and provide the education around how to self-advocate,” says Gabrielle Brown. “Unfortunately, racism is built into the system, into the healthcare system.”

Showcasing doulas and midwives

The bus arrives at the tour’s first stop: a cozy house in South L.A. associated with the Charles Drew University’s Black Maternal Health Center of Excellence .

At the house, the expecting moms are greeted with staff that treat them to smoothies, snacks and gift bags filled with a onesie.

The center provides prenatal, postpartum and wraparound care services to Black birthing persons throughout L.A. County.

Clinical manager Keomi Barksdale explains how the center helps with providing lactation support, physical therapy, and getting access to a doula — which is what expecting mom Victoria Levi came on the tour to learn more about.

“I'm still in my first trimester, so I don't know a lot of information,” she says. “No one's ever — in my family — had doulas or had a midwife. So these are things that I want to explore.”

Searching for equity in healthcare

Candace Cosey is expecting her third child in July, but came on the tour because she wanted to make this birth better than her previous ones.

“It wasn’t horrible with my daughter, but nine years ago, with my son, it was just very traumatizing and so I don’t want to go through that, but that’s kind of led me to start being active now,” she says.

When she started going into labor with her son, an ambulance took her to the nearest hospital, Centinela. “I didn’t have anybody in the room with me,” she recalls.

She says a doctor tried to deliver the baby while she wasn’t fully dilated, and she had problems with her epidural being placed correctly. A second try was also unsuccessful, and Cosey decided to labor without the pain medication.

“At that point, I’m like, ‘It’s OK. I don’t want anything.’ So it was like I was forced into a non-medicated birth,” Cosey says.

In a statement to LAist, a Centinela spokesperson says federal and state privacy laws don’t allow them to discuss specific cases without a patient’s permission. They note that patients who have concerns about their care can talk to their physician, nurse, patient experience staff members, or contact a relevant regulatory agency, like the California Department of Public Health: “Information for these agencies is included in our Patient Handbook and posted in various locations throughout the hospital.”

This time around, Cosey says she wants a doula, which Medi-Cal now covers . She hasn’t decided yet on where she wants to give birth, but is exploring the options of birthing at home or a birthing center. “That’s why I’m here and that’s why I want to get more information.”

She’s enamored with the next stop, Kindred Space LA, a birthing center.

Nicole LaCour-Wordlaw, director of operations, guides the guests around the space, and shows them tranquil birthing rooms, equipped with bathtubs and birthing balls for labor.

One mom quips she’s about to go into labor.

Considering pregnancy plans and hospital births

The next and final stops of the tour are two hospitals: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and L.A. County General Medical Center, formerly known as LAC-USC.

On the way there, several of the women discuss Cedars’ history with Black maternal health, most notably the death of Kira Johnson in 2016.

Gabrielle Brown, with Black Women For Wellness, explains choosing the hospital was intentional, and that it’s been working to address Black maternal and infant health.

“We wanted to be sure to introduce our mamas to the care that Cedars-Sinai provides. But also, when we show up, our goal is to hold Cedars accountable,” she says. “Let them know that, you know, ‘These Black mamas are interested in seeking care here. What do you all have to offer?’”

At the hospital, nurse Paola Wong guides the group to a labor and delivery room, showing the different options a birthing parent has when it’s time to give birth, like using a squat bar on the hospital bed, playing music or dimming the lights.

She explains that after birth, nurses and doctors will leave the baby on mom’s chest for an hour to help them transition to their new world.

“It’s a form of stress being squeezed out, and so being able to be right on mom’s chest, we call it froggy position — ear on mom’s heart.”

At L.A. County General Hospital across town, nurses guide them through the towering hospital into the labor and delivery ward.

Midwife Tatjana Muwwakkil explains for people who don’t have a doula, the hospital provides an option to have medical students serve as doulas.

“Last week for a patient, we called one of our medical students, and then they came and supported her through her labor and her postpartum, and it was a great service for her,” she says.

“Just because you're having a surgery or giving birth in the hospital doesn't mean it's all out of your control,” says med student and Black Women for Wellness intern Kayla Blair, mentioning doulas and incorporating birth plans.

She said one of the big benefits of the tour is giving people options.

“In my experience, a lot of times people in the community might just go to maybe the first provider, the first clinic or something that's available to them,” Blair says. “A benefit of this experience is you can go and ask all the questions and you’re not stuck there.”