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Birth Justice

Pregnancy experiences and outcomes can be dramatically different for different people, especially for members of vulnerable communities like women of color, immigrants, LGBTQ people, disabled women, and those with low incomes, among others. There is a pressing need to find solutions to improving care quality and access for racially marginalized communities. Birth justice is a movement led by Black women and women of color that seeks to recognize those inequalities and to empower people in these communities in the pregnancy and birthing process. The birth justice movement works to safeguard the rights of birthing people to make decisions around their pregnancies, including seeking abortions, and to have children in safe and supportive environments. 

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Birth Justice is a component of reproductive justice, which is the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent existing children in safe and sustainable communities. For more resources on birth justice and related work, visit UCSF's California Pre-term Birth Initiative and the Voices for Birth Justice campaign.

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Research & tools

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February 2, 2023

“Patients want to see people that look like them”: Aspiring midwives of color as resistance to racism through concordant care in the United States

Alspaugh A, Suárez-Baquero D, Mehra R, Nikki Lanshaw, MPH, Joseph J, Combs M, Spiller K, McLemore MR, Franck LS. “Patients want to see people that look like them”: Aspiring midwives of color as resistance to racism through concordant care in the United States. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health. February 2023; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100226.
January 10, 2023

“‘Oh gosh, why go?’ cause they are going to look at me and not hire”: intersectional experiences of black women navigating employment during pregnancy and parenting

Mehra R, Alspaugh A, Dunn JT, Franck LS, McLemore MR, Keene DE, Kershaw TS, Ickovics JR. “‘Oh gosh, why go?’ cause they are going to look at me and not hire”: intersectional experiences of black women navigating employment during pregnancy and parenting. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. January 2023; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-022-05268-9.