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Equity Before Birth

Podcast on Equity Before Birth

It is an honor to have Joy Spencer join us for this podcast episode. She is fresh off the stage from a Testimony before Congress and inspiring us at every turn. Joy is the Executive Director at Equity Before Birth. A non-profit dedicated to saving the lives of Black birthing people and their infants. They strive to improve health outcomes through access to critical services and support.

Joy is a fierce advocate for marginalized people. She relies on her background, lived experience, and parental guidance. You can find her in community meetings and on the floor of congress advocating for others. In today’s episode, we are looking at the state of maternal/infant healthcare and childcare as an essential service to Americans. Joy is helping us understand the disparities experienced by black birthing people. The data also points to dangerous and fatal outcomes for babies before they even arrive! The trends continue into early childhood. This is a life-and-death situation for many citizens. Our work and understanding are critical as part of building better infrastructure.

Key takeaways from today’s episode

  • Leveraging lived experience to inform better policy and recommendations to achieve better outcomes in advocacy work.

  • How the pandemic shed a light on the disparities for marginalized communities in maternal and infant healthcare – especially for black birthing peoples.

  • The current state and ranking of maternal and infant health and childcare in the United States.

  • Review the statistics and data that show inequality and its dangerous outcomes. We also talk about life beyond data. Sharing stories in the everyday lives of birthing people, mothers, infants, and children.

  • How do maternal, infant, and child healthcare and childcare impact our communities and workplaces?

    • The importance of stable and robust national childcare infrastructure.


  • The various methods and tools you can use to advocate for yourself (and marginalized birthing persons in general) when you know you are an at-risk population.

  • Ways you, as an ally and advocate, can better support and show up for black mothers and birthing peoples in your community and workplaces.

The work to support birthing people and babies continue!

Check out some of our other blogs, podcasts, and resources related to this topic:

  • Check out the podcast that led to this continued conversation with Joy Spencer, who is the expert!

  • Feeling charged and impassioned by this conversation? Not sure where to start your allyship work? Check out my podcast on Allyship to get started.

  • Bystander training is important because as Joy states, “silence is violence.” We have a responsibility to show up for each other. I highly recommend the Hollaback Bystander Intervention workshop if you’re interested in tactics to disrupt situations of violence and harm

  • We rely on data and facts when it comes to educating ourselves on the impact of racism and how it creates disparities in birth and natality.

  • Stay informed on local and national legislation that can improve outcomes for marginalized families.

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