The Preprint Live with Elaine Welteroth

You can find Elaine Welteroth’s powerful piece in TIME Magazine here, with this passage that stopped me in my tracks: “Almost everything I knew about childbirth had been programmed by Hollywood’s frenzied depictions of screaming women being hauled, legs up, through fluorescent hospital halls. As scary as it all seemed, hospital births are the norm in America. Apparently, so is birth trauma.”

Cherise Doyley, a doula in Florida, was forced to attend a virtual hearing in front of a judge because she tried to advocate for a natural birth when her medical team pushed for a c-section. This meant she found herself in front of a judge while in labor in her hospital bed. It is an astonishingly cruel reality, and one we watched unfold a month prior to another woman, Brianna Bennett. Both Elaine’s piece (and the initial ProPublica coverage) should profoundly unsettle us.

I have already written much about the one and only Charles Johnson, but it’s hard to not. If you still haven’t heard him tell the truly soul-wrenching origins of his work, here is a good start.

You can support the life-affirming work of birthFUND (including their army of incredible partners and sponsors, like Flea!) here.