Watch Room to Grow Talks: Black Maternal Health Week Highlights

On April 14, we hosted our first-ever ‘Room to Grow Talks’ - a new conversation series that will focus on highlighting issues and topics that are important to our families, team, and larger community. Hosted in the Nubian Square area of Boston at the Roxbury Innovation Center, the panel discussion brought together policymakers, healthcare professionals, nonprofit leaders, and members of the community to listen, discuss, and learn about the status of Black maternal health in America.

Moderated by journalist Brittany Jones-Cooper, the discussion highlighted the experiences of panelists, including doula and maternal health advocate Stephanie Crawford, M.Ed. of Propa City Community Outreach; counselor and owner of Rising Hope Counseling and Wellness LaMone Downey Leonard, LICSW’ March of Dimes’ Rahni Jenkins'; and Room to Grow Board Member Rashaan Reid. Each shared their own experiences with trauma, loss, and joys of childbirth as they’ve navigated the subconscious bias and institutional racism within our healthcare system. 

With welcome remarks from Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, the event celebrated powerful Black women and fostered an honest conversation about the inequities facing Black birthing people in the U.S., as well as how we as a society should be empowered to demand more from our institutions, leaders, and government. 

Room to Grow is committed to participating in meaningful dialogue around the inequities that exist in our nation. We feel a natural starting point for this is a careful examination of the detrimental and far reaching impact that institutional racism has on Black maternal health. We are dedicated to the dream that no matter their path towards parenthood, every family has access to the resources necessary so that their babies thrive from the start. Ultimately, to achieve this, we must find and examine solutions to improve healthcare for Black women and birthing people.

While these conversations can be both difficult and painful, we applaud all our participants for being vocal advocates for not only themselves, but for others in the community. This conversation underscored the essential need to address this healthcare crisis in our country and demand action to ensure equal care for all.

We hope you’ll take a moment to watch highlights from this powerful discussion or watch the full conversation on YouTube.