Ruby in conversation with Christin Farmer, activist, doula and Founder of Birthing Beautiful Communities.
This week’s episode is deep, and real, and important, and features a conversation with a woman named Christin Farmer. Christin is the Founder of an organization called Birthing Beautiful Communities, a grass-roots team of doulas and women trained in perinatal support who provide education and support to expecting African American mothers.
Based out of Cleaveland Ohio, in Christin’s community seven black babies die for every one white baby. Nationally, African American women are affected by infant death 3 times more than the national average. This one simple fact is an incredibly powerful illustration of the everyday, human impact of institutionalized racism in the US.
There are numerous factors playing into this, which Christin explains in our conversation. And she exudes the belief that, when we work together, we really can begin to overcome some of the seemingly most deeply rooted problems that we face, together, as a society.
In this episode, we discuss:
-The human impact of African American culture having been built on trauma
-The manifestation of this legacy and how we as a society can begin to acknowledge and address this
-How cultural attitudes shaped by racial oppression directly impact negative birth outcomes
-The power of sisterhood when women commit to supporting one another’s growth
-The importance of giving people the tools to facilitate their own healing
-Why we need to think of equity as a verb—meaning to apply an abundance of opportunities and resources to communities that have historically been deprived of these things
-Why social interconnectedness is essential for cultivating the vulnerability required to heal
This conversation is rich, and deep, and incredibly inspiring. If you can, please take time to listen extra closely—and to pay attention to what it brings up in you.
You can learn more about Christin and her work HERE and donate to Birthing Beautiful Communities and their partners HERE.