The 1619 Project, episode two titled Race is about a black woman who’s a mother of one girl and two boys but there were supposed to be three. The third son passed away before he was even born due to her race, not being treated the same during her pregnancy by her white doctors. The mother’s name is Chrissy Sample, and she has the same story as many other black women losing their babies before they are even born.
The fetal mortality rate for black women is more than two times that of white women. This is not because of any biological differences between white women and black women, but it is because evidence shows that black women do not receive the same standards of medical care as white women do. A survey done in 2019 shows that medical staff have reportedly mistreated women by violations of physical privacy, they are threatened, or even refused treatment; 23% percent of those women who were surveyed are black and only 14% are white.
Chrissy Sample was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and her husband works for the NYPD and they live a modern life with their daughter and two sons. However, during her second son’s gender revealing party she found out that they were expecting two baby boys. The doctor who delivered her first baby told Chrissy that they cannot deliver twins; therefore, she must find a new one. So, she found a new doctor, but that doctor happened to be white. This new doctor treated Chrissy poorly by only giving her checkups every 4-5 weeks, she wasn’t reassuring or engaging during her visits, and she brushed off her concerns of pain and discomfort. With that said, she tried to find a better doctor, but her pregnancy was during the COVID-19 pandemic so finding a new doctor wasn’t an option. Typically, when women are having two or more babies they are supposed to have a checkup every two weeks, but she was seeing Chrissy every four weeks which left room for anything to happen to her or the babies putting them in danger. The only thing the doctor did was swipe a doppler on her stomach and say “there’s two heartbeats, so I’ll see you in 4-5 weeks. However, after 22 weeks, things got more difficult and painful. This doctor knew this as well and didn’t check her further. Her excuse was, “well maybe one of the twins is sitting on a pinched nerve”. This shows how white people always dismiss black people when they’re in pain believing that “they don’t feel anything”.
After Chrissy’s doctor dismissed the pain, she was experiencing, she finally was able to see a high-risk doctor. During her visit with this new doctor, she said, “baby A does not have a heartbeat”. Chrissy didn’t know what to say or how to react due to the disbelief. She could only say “I don’t understand”. Then the doctor said she must have baby A and B together or else she would lose both, so she went home knowing everything had changed. There is only one now and she must go on with her normal everyday life before the second baby is ready, knowing one of her babies in her womb is dead.
This is something that many black women across America suffer through. They are being mistreated during their pregnancies resulting in the baby’s death or even the mother’s death. It is something that is not talked about enough to the point where most people are unaware of or deny it.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 