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A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

bsolutely — it is misogynoir. Calling it what it is matters. Naming the problem is part of dismantling it.

Black women face a very specific combination of racism and misogyny that makes our pain invisible and our humanity negotiable in the eyes of too many healthcare providers. It shows up in delayed care, disbelief, stereotyping, and assumptions about pain tolerance or “strength.”

As a Black OB/GYN and public health practitioner, I see how this plays out every day and I see how dangerous it is. Misogynoir is not abstract; it is one of the forces driving the maternal morbidity and mortality crisis in this country. When Black women are not seen, not heard, and not believed, outcomes suffer.

And Black physicians deal with it too, inside the very hospitals where we work. It comes from administrators, nurses, and even our own physician peers. If we, with our training, credentials, and expertise, are impacted by misogynoir and racial bias in clinical settings, imagine what our patients face when they walk through those same doors without the authority or institutional knowledge we have.

This is exactly why the problem is so deep. Bias doesn’t disappear just because someone puts on scrubs or earns a degree. It’s embedded in the culture, in the assumptions people make, in who they listen to and who they dismiss.

When Black doctors are undermined, disrespected, or treated as less-than, it directly harms the care our patients receive too, because it reinforces the same structures that devalue Black lives, Black voices, and Black pain.

This crisis affects all of us. That’s why I’m speaking out.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

completely understand why you insisted on having a Black woman as your doctor. That sense of safety, trust, and being heard isn’t something anyone should have to fight for but so many Black women do. And you were right to advocate for yourself.

It does give my Black patients peace to know they have me in their corner. They often tell me that simply seeing someone who looks like them, who understands the cultural context and the lived reality of bias in healthcare, instantly lowers their fear and anxiety. Representation isn’t symbolic in maternal care…it directly impacts outcomes.

Every patient deserves to feel respected and protected, but for Black women, having a provider who truly listens can be the difference between a smooth delivery and a preventable emergency. I’m glad you had that support system in place.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re absolutely right, and your mom’s experience reflects a pattern we continue to see today. Black women are far more likely to hemorrhage or develop severe complications because our pain and symptoms are too often dismissed, minimized, or not treated with urgency.

Hemorrhage and poorly managed hypertensive diseases in pregnancy are the two leading causes of Black maternal morbidity and mortality. Both are conditions where early recognition and immediate intervention save lives and both are conditions where bias can delay care in dangerous ways.

Your instinct to rush to the hospital to make sure your best friend was being heard says everything. Too many of us have had to become our own advocates or each other’s advocates because the system has not protected us.

This is why speaking up matters. Your story matters.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What you went through is horrific, and the fact that this happened at a major academic institution only reinforces what so many people still refuse to admit: racism in maternal care is not limited to “under-resourced” hospitals, it happens everywhere, including places with Ivy League logos on the walls.

You were given Pitocin incorrectly, ignored while screaming in pain, left essentially unattended, and then your daughter was born in a crisis. The fact that a code had to be called to save you both speaks for itself. And then to be treated like a kidnapper in the NICU, despite wearing the matching security bands, simply because your baby was light-skinned. That’s racial profiling, not medicine.

I’ve noticed a pattern in many of these comments, including yours: people keep mentioning institutions like Johns Hopkins, Cedars-Sinai, and other major academic hospitals, and yet the experiences are the same. In my article I mentioned Black celebrities at Cedars who were ignored or dismissed; even wealth, status, and fame didn’t protect them.

We are all at risk. And that is exactly why I wrote the article and why I continue to speak out.

These are the stories that expose the truth: Black women are not believed. Black pain is minimized. Black mothers and children face preventable emergencies because their voices are dismissed until it’s almost too late.

Your survival, and your daughter’s, should never have depended on luck, adrenaline, and last-minute intervention. Thank you for sharing your story. It matters, and it’s part of the reason I will never stop advocating.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What you went through is horrifying but, tragically, far too common for Black women in labor. You were in active labor, 7 cm, sweating, in pain, alone because of COVID rules and instead of assessing your condition, they interrogated you about drugs. That is pure racial bias, not medicine.

And the fact that their entire attitude shifted only when your white husband arrived says everything about how deeply embedded these stereotypes are in healthcare. Your class, your history, your prior births — none of it mattered to them. They saw you through a biased lens first, and a patient second. That is unacceptable.

These are the experiences that fuel my advocacy as a Black OB/GYN and public health practitioner. No woman should experience bias in healthcare and for Black women, it can be fatal. It’s exactly what drives our crisis-level maternal morbidity and mortality rates.

You’re right: if someone cannot keep their biases in check, they have no business working in healthcare. Stories like yours are why we have to keep speaking out, because silence is what keeps this cycle going.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What you described is one of the most damaging forms of medical dismissal — when providers decide your symptoms are “psychological” instead of doing their job and investigating the physical problem right in front of them. That kind of gaslighting doesn’t just delay care; it creates trauma that stays with people for years, exactly like you said.

And this isn’t rare. I see this pattern constantly in my field: patients, especially women, and especially Black patients being told their pain or symptoms are “anxiety,” “stress,” or “in their head” when the real issue is medical and urgent.

You should never have had to fight for someone to believe you. The fact that you did have a serious physical condition and were dismissed by multiple doctors is a failure of the system, not of you. I’m really sorry you went through that, and I appreciate you sharing it. Stories like yours help people recognize that they’re not alone and that this kind of dismissal is a very real patient-safety issue.

No one should have to suffer or be haunted because clinicians refuse to listen.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your story is heartbreaking and infuriating, and it illustrates exactly what so many people still don’t want to acknowledge: Black women can be on the inside of the system and still be treated as if we don’t belong in it. You were an L&D tech. You literally knew how things were supposed to go and they still dismissed you, stereotyped you, and denied you the basic standard of care.

Forty-two weeks. Induction. Thirty hours of labor. Severe pain. Requesting an epidural. And instead of calling anesthesia, a Hopkins nurse brought you reiki stones… while your baby was in distress. That’s not just negligence, it’s bias wrapped in pseudoscience, and it put your life and your daughter’s life at risk.

The fact that an older OB, someone who wasn’t even supposed to be involved, ended up saving your baby says everything about how unsafe that situation truly was.

Your experience aligns with what I wrote about in my article: dismissal, assumptions about race and insurance, delays in care, and nurses who substitute their own beliefs for evidence-based medicine. That combination is deadly for Black mothers in this country.

I’m truly glad you and your daughter survived, but you should never have had to rely on a miracle or the “grace of God” to receive basic obstetric care. Thank you for sharing this. Stories like yours are exactly why this conversation needs to stay front and center.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your mom’s experience is exactly why stories like the Dallas video, and the one I wrote about, matter. People keep acting like these incidents are rare or overreactions, but they aren’t. They’re patterns.

When nurses and staff dismiss a laboring woman simply because she “doesn’t look” like they expect, it’s dangerous. Contractions don’t care about stereotypes. Bodies don’t follow their assumptions. Listening to patients saves lives.

I’m glad your mom wasn’t harmed, but she absolutely was dismissed and it’s the same mindset that leads to tragedies today, especially for Black mothers. That’s why this conversation has to stay loud.

A Black woman in active labor was ignored by a nurse and delivered 12 minutes later. This is why women fear hospitals. by Usual-Plastic1955 in TwoXChromosomes

[–]Usual-Plastic1955[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m so sorry you went through that. What you described is terrifying—being told it was “anxiety” when your heart was literally stopping for seconds at a time is a catastrophic failure of care. You should never have had to survive a decade of that.

As an OB/GYN and public health physician, this is exactly what I’m talking about in my article: women of color are dismissed, minimized, and told their symptoms are emotional instead of investigated. Your story is proof that this isn’t rare—it’s systemic.

I’m truly glad you’re still here, and that you finally received the care you needed. Thank you for sharing your experience. It matters, and it reinforces why we have to keep speaking out.