Delivering difficult truths: What coronavirus reveals about giving birth in America

Adrienne Crawford | May 20, 2020

2020 Healthy Communities Fellow Adrienne Crawford is a Certified Nurse Midwife who believes black women thrive with culturally competent care. She practices at Community of Hope in Washington DC, where some of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates exist in the United States among African American communities. Adrienne is working to change this reality. Passionate about women’s health and reproductive justice, Adrienne brings over 15 years of experience in women’s health and is also a Board-Certified Lactation Consultant.

Image from NY Daily News

In the New York Daily News, Adrienne describes the terror women are facing every day in making difficult decisions around their pregnancies. Even though midwives have always been at the center of providing great care, COVID-19 has amplified the importance of midwives drastically. Adrienne states, “COVID-19 had done what no amount of data, research, appeals to empathy and calls for unity could accomplish: It vaporized the barriers of race, culture and socio-economics for women who were just desperate to survive.”