NURSE FAMILY PARTNERSHIP<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re keeping food on table, roof over their head, and clothing on their back\u2026\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKalamazoo is rich in resources, but there is a disconnect\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDo we communicate well with each other? And if people are aware of it [resources], do they access it?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMaternal factors, too. Chronic illness. Chronic disease. Diabetes. Drugs. Mothers using substances during pregnancy. Young moms who are still growing.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cShe was saying that she really believed that part of it was just that long-standing racism\u2014like the stress of racism over a lifetime, no matter how well you are doing in your pregnancy–can still affect you\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWell, you look at the Kalamazoo community, and the supports are there. And people are going to prenatal, well not all, but enough people are going to prenatal appointments that you wouldn\u2019t think that we would have that significant of a disparity between racial groups. You know, the supports are there to help support these families. A lot of them seem to be connected. I don\u2019t have numbers on how many of them are connected to the supports that they feel they need or would be ideal. But it seems like it\u2019s there, yet we still have this huge disparity between ethnic and racial groups and that\u2019s just\u2014it\u2019s hard to fathom why.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s that some young moms, or not just young, but some single\u2014it\u2019s the single mom being the sole caregiver and responsibility for these children, besides going to school or working, or both, and taking care of a child: worrying about daycare, worrying about money, all of those social cofactors.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just so hard to do it alone. Even if they have some family support, it\u2019s not the same as being the sole person responsible.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard, you know, how do you tell what factors lead up to why a child dies? I would say it\u2019s got to be different in every one, and again it\u2019s why does it seem to happen in this group so much more than in another? What\u2019s different about them aside from the color of their skin? You know, and obviously there\u2019s probably some cultural things, but it\u2019s hard to pinpoint what a cultural factor would be that would cause this.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhy is it just the African American population that their infant mortality is so high?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n BRONSON LABOR AND DELIVERY NURSES<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think perhaps culturally, the visits seem so mundane. You come in, you see a practitioner. They don\u2019t do anything to you or for you necessarily so the perception seems to be a lot that well, \u2018Why do I have to go do that?\u2019 There\u2019s no understood value.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cEthnically I can\u2019t say, racially I can\u2019t say that I\u2019ve had any one experience be more consistent than another. I think each person brings something unique to it. That\u2019s what makes it so challenging is because you can\u2019t say \u2018Oh, I can fix this and that will fix it.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI know there\u2019s a birth center and clinic in Washington D.C. in the inner city part of town that has had really good luck just by providing patients care that is respectful, compassionate, and that makes the patients feel welcome and makes it feel like it\u2019s a place that they want to be. [\u2026] So if patients are getting that level of special treatment and respect and compassion, where they feel like they are being listened to and they want to come back. And it\u2019s not just put this on your tongue step on that scale, everything looks fine, see you next time.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI have to assume, because I\u2019m not in their community, but I don\u2019t think that healthcare is a priority when they\u2019re worrying about getting food on the table.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cComing from unstable family lives is part of it. Lower socioeconomic status. Inadequate transportation. Not having a safe place to be pregnant and to turn into adults, so that their developmental status is sometimes stunted too.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt would be interesting to know if there could be a tailoring of classes somehow. I don\u2019t know how, because we have free childbirth classes, free parenting, free daddying boot camp. There\u2019s a lot of options that Bronson itself provides, and then in the community there\u2019s even way more. But it would be interesting to really look at what those services provide, how the respect is, how the diversity is.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re women with a lot of experience, and pretty much Caucasian. That we just don\u2019t connect, that our voices don\u2019t have the authority or the value within the community\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt sometimes feels like as healthcare providers we\u2019re missing something. It feels like there must be a way to do it better. Because the data is irrefutable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOr if I\u2019m telling you how to put your baby back to sleep, and safe sleep, and sleeping this, but your culture and your community is telling you to do it a different way. How do we make those connections so that I\u2019m giving you information that\u2019s <\/span>useful<\/span><\/i> to you and not just this story that\u2019s up over here\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOur African American mortality rate is awful for our county. But it doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s the African American culture. It doesn\u2019t feel like when I\u2019m talking to them that that patient because she\u2019s African American I can say, \u2018Oh, boom, this happens every time.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cExcept when the statistics come out, we find out it\u2019s four times the number of black babies that are dying than white babies. How is that happening?<\/span><\/p>\n What\u2019s wrong? What are we missing?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of people care but it still feels like our whole community isn”t outraged; our whole community should be outraged\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the hard part. That\u2019s the puzzle, because we feel like we are giving the same level of care and the same chances and the additional resources and the programs. So why are we still failing? Where are we losing these babies?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, when a baby dies I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s purple polka-dotted. It\u2019s a baby, it\u2019s a future, it\u2019s a hope.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n HEALTHY BABIES HEALTHY START<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cYou know, if you have a mom who is depressed during pregnancy… she has stressors and when she has the baby usually she is depressed still and making that connection after she has the baby is so important.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just the co-sleeping there are a lot of different factors, mental health, domestic violence, smoking that contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe have to get more buy-in from the community that we\u2019re dealing with we have to get more people within that community to believe in the cause for us to see an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI also believe that because it hasn”t happened to them or someone around them so they still are not really believing that this is happening\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI truly believe that it comes back to racism and the stress with racism. Waking up everyday and thinking that you”re a certain color and how that impacts you going into a place to receive services or how you”re treated or the trust for your doctor or the trust of the people giving services to your baby.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe liquor stores are saying we accept EBT and WIC but, there\u2019s not healthy food there and if there is supposedly fresh food there is not they\u2019re rotting.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt”s not only the choice of the mom making these bad choices and that she doesn”t want the adequates nutrients for her baby\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe monopoly and people who are interested in making money off of babies… they put out things that aren\u2019t in agreement with safe sleep and the moms want it because it\u2019s fuzzy and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think people as far as workers, that do some of the things like home visits forget about building a rapport first because if someone doesn”t really trust you it”s very unlikely that they are going to do what you say or use your advice.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt sucks being poor, I”m just going to say it… you get asked different questions that people with money don”t get asked and then you\u2019re supposed to tell them all this stuff and once you tell them maybe CPS gets involved…so it all gets turned around in a negative way.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt”s been proven that people feel more comfortable when the people who come in can at least relate to them in some way, culturally, or whatever it may be.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cin our community if you take a look at the other programs they don”t really culturally represent the community that they\u2019re trying to serve. \u00a0Their heart is probably there but it\u2019s not the diversity that is needed in the home visitation group to represent high-risk groups.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf no one has time or resources it falls apart.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re gonna always put me with a different provider if my schedule doesn\u2019t match and if I don”t request my doctor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou get moms with a mental health issue who needs help and support\u2026 because the doctor wants them to take meds…instead of an alternative because are those meds healthy for the baby?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere is a lack of support for people who are trying to manage their mental health.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cOnce the family knows they can trust you they start to really believe what you say and see that you support and really want the best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you have to bring yourself to their level to get them to understand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they don\u2019t feel comfortable talking to doctors one time a woman told me about an issue when the doctor left.. she didn\u2019t feel comfortable telling the doctor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople need someone to believe in them and we have to believe that the seeds we\u2019re planting we\u2019ll see fruit from it one day.\u201d<\/p>\n YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIf children are supposed to be our future, and there is no children, where is our future?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI honestly feel like it takes a village to raise a child. We need to come together as a community.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But I had a stillborn in 1999. August 24, 1999. Quadralia Lashay Thompson may she rest in peace. But I was seventeen years old at that time. At that approximate time I was staying here at the Y. I was going through domestic assault and plus my age and stuff I think us young black people go through a lot more than the other races because of our lifestyle, how we live and how we have to survive, and how we have to cope with a lot of things. Some of us raised ourselves and some of our bodies were more mature than they were supposed to be before we started having intercourse–like me, I was raped, you know. It could have been come from abuse from the family, whatever.<\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe [black people] have more challenges as far as where we come from, our parents have been some of them alcoholics, some of them drug users, some of them in the domestic violence program, which stresses out all of us and, you know, we try to protect ourselves cuz from us not wanting to be like our parents.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWe”re [black people] actually tearing ourselves down, you know. Well, that”s just my opinion. And we need to learn how to focus on us and not actually what goes on with everybody else\u2014focus on yourself, self preservation. And we should probably do that and not worry about what this man doing or what your momma did or what uncle raped you or, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThey said my placenta was not actually completed at, um, from being stressed out they said my baby, my cord had wrapped around her neck and from the stress she was going, it was going up and down so I didn”t know that my cord was strangling her but every time I was stressed out, and every time I raised my hand up over my head, I was taking life from her. And by me not being developed, it was like she, it got deeper so as far as you can go, like if you”re being hung, you can”t hang yourself unless you go so far. And so she hung herself and that was from me being seventeen years old, stressed out, and also going through domestic, domestic abuse.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWe shut down as black women. We have an attitude that is not even an attitude; it”s called, um, we have this shell. No matter what is going on, I don”t care. We won”t cry easily; you cannot make us cry, you cannot break us down. We”re so hard on the outside, no matter what. When we get alone we”ll cry, but we don”t want the world to think anything is wrong.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cParents teach you. And a lot of black parents teach you: \u2018I don\u2019t want to see you cry. There\u2019s no reason for you to be crying. You supposed to be like this, you supposed to act like this. Don\u2019t you let nobody upset you. You don\u2019t let nobody tell you what to do.\u2019 You know? All that so we catch a shell no matter what\u2019s going on we\u2019re gonna\u2014We\u2019re just gonna hold it in until the last minute. We wait too long to fix the situation. And then by then it\u2019s too late.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not enough we\u2019re listening too much to, \u2018Well my grand mama did this like this. I don\u2019t want my baby to be going to the hospital. They\u2019re not gonna keep charging me on all these bills. I don\u2019t want them taking my baby away saying I\u2019m not taking care of my baby.\u2019 Sorry. But you get this all the time, you know.<\/span><\/p>\n And then by then it\u2019s too late and people want to call it SIDS\u2014it\u2019s not SIDS; it\u2019s just the fact that the baby gon\u2019\u2014it\u2019s unknown. But it could have been found out if we had took that time and we took that time, you know.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd instead of us taking that test to\u2014I can\u2019t check right\u2014when you\u2019re at the hospital: \u201cCan you check my baby\u2019s breathing rate?\u201d All that stuff like that. We don\u2019t do it. We don\u2019t take that time now.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just here. You scared to really find out what the doctor really has to say. You know, that\u2019s even with me right now by myself. You know, when I go to take tests for diabetes, whatever, I\u2019m scared to go take tests cuz I\u2019m scared of what the doctor gonna tell me.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd, like, smokin\u2019 cigarettes, or smokin\u2019 weed, or drinkin\u2019 or whatever, you know. We get to the place where we want to be around our friends and friends: \u2018Oh, well, this ain\u2019t gonna hurt ya; I did it with my baby.\u2019 And, you know, they might have been alright with their baby but not alright with yours. I mean, you know, there\u2019s a lot of things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cA lot of black people, we don\u2019t track down our family history. There\u2019s a lot, a lot of broken families. Back in the day like maybe the sixties and the seventies, I still have, I grew up with, well, I didn\u2019t grow up with them. But my, my mother and father are still married to this day and I still, I couldn\u2019t tell you who has passed my family tree. What\u2019s going on with this. And that could be a big problem too; we don\u2019t know nothing about our bloodline. We don\u2019t know: Does this person carry sickle cell? Does this person, you know, um, have\u2026This person had tuberculosis back and this auntie had tuberculosis and this auntie had this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd there\u2019s a lot of that\u2014that, that unprotected sex, you know. Nobody\u2019s married anymore. Everybody\u2019s having babies without being married. \u2018This is a one night stand, so I don\u2019t know who the baby daddy is because\u2026\u2019 I don\u2019t even like that word. \u2018I don\u2019t know who the father of my child is because I slept with Jimbob this day and I slept with Samuel this day and then two weeks later, because Samuel made me mad, I slept with this and this.\u2019 So when you get pregnant and then you turn, you count down, trying to figure out which one. You ain\u2019t gonna tell nobody that you don\u2019t know who your child\u2019s father is. You\u2019re just gonna name one of them and then don\u2019t tell nobody later down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI had a miscarriage. And I didn\u2019t know I was pregnant. And I had already had my son. But the person who I was pregnant by was stressing me out, just stressing me out. And, um, we had gotten into a fight on the side of the highway and something happened and I ended up at the emergency room and found out that I was miscarrying.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd that\u2019s \u2018cause, um, we put ourselves in stressful, stressful situations with, with these men. I mean, and like she said, we\u2019re too busy thinking about this instead of thinking about ourself and our baby, we\u2019re thinking about why we made him mad or trying to, trying to do something else instead of self-preservation. We need to learn self-preservation is number one, basically.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n [After asked about other common causes of infant death]: \u201cHematomas…It\u2019s a blood clot, um, mine was, um on my placenta and I didn\u2019t know it was under there. So I went to the hospital cuz my back was hurting. I was like seven and a half months and, um, I knew something was wrong because, you know, they didn\u2019t give me any pictures or anything like that at the ultrasound. So they was taking a long time and, um, I went into the hallway and I seen like four doctors out there. And they looked at me like \u2018Oh, wait we\u2019ll be back in there.\u2019 And then they, you know, took my kids out cuz I had two healthy kids before that. And then they told me, \u2018Yeah, he wasn\u2019t breathing. He\u2019s gone.\u2019 He had been\u2014they said he died like a week before that and I didn\u2019t know because I still felt him moving.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThe stress comes from the wall. I mean, you\u2019re forced to be relentless, right. You are forced to pretend like everything is okay.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAfter a while you can\u2019t, um, show a sign of weakness because there are so many things, um, that are already built and designed to break you. So you can\u2019t let things that you can control break you, you know. Um, the mental health thing\u2014…When that was happening I couldn\u2019t believe it at that moment, like \u2018Seriously? Stress?\u2019 But I knew that I was under a lot of stress because that was a valid situation, you know. Um, but I was also in school. I was working. I was dealing with the violence. So, it was compound stress; it wasn\u2019t just that one thing\u2014that violence.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd raised yourself since you was like ten or eleven basically. I mean, see that\u2019s the life that we have been through. I know cuz of my best friend; she know what I\u2019ve been through. But, yeah, we have been through.\u201d<\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThey [hospital workers] just send you out the hospital and, [agreement from the group] and send you on your way\u2014it\u2019s nothing. Only, only help you got is the Y and the sexual assault program…And that\u2019s why us African Americans go other places cuz there\u2019s nothing out here for us. In Kalamazoo, Michigan we don\u2019t have nothing. For us young black mothers who lost kids, we don\u2019t have nothing. They don\u2019t help you get over that. I mean, they, they, they don\u2019t. It, it\u2019s seems like they just don\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI used to babysit, um, my nephew. He died at four and a half months, thank God my aunt took over cuz I was only about, I was about thirteen, you know, watching him and, um, and it\u2019s crazy with him, um, and this, it\u2019s so crazy because, um, his penis grew inside. So, he would have had to have, like several operations before he was one. Um, I don\u2019t know, um, it, it was a lot going on. Um, I personally felt that the baby was being abused. Um, by his dad. The same man who abused me. Um, before he passed away, that day he was throwing up white stuff\u2014figured out it was sperm and stuff like that. So, um, I, I guess this, you know, he was being abused and stuff.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd there\u2019s a lot more abuse and, you know, sexual assaults and stuff happening in black families than you will find in the Caucasian families. A lot more.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n [When asked what <\/span>does <\/span><\/i>exist in Kalamazoo]: \u201cYou know the prenatal care. You know, the doctors and things like that. They wait for you and they have all that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nobody that you can really count to because if you, you know, you lose the baby now and they seen\u2014you, you\u2019re gone out the hospital within hours and, and then what is you to do? You go home and\u2014and what? And what?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd then you have to\u2014in the same, on the same unit as other mothers that just delivered so\u2014And now your baby\u2019s gone and then next door you have another baby crying.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI got a, a nephew now. His baby, um, how old is Isaa\u2019s little baby? Five months old. Just turned five months. Um, they let him out the hospital with a feeding tube, told the mom, \u2018Okay the baby was in the hospital a week because when he was eating the, um, milk was still going to his lungs, okay?\u2019 So, there\u2019s fluid on the baby\u2019s lungs. They got it kind of cleared out, whatever. They allowed this baby to go home\u2014now these are young parents. I\u2019m sorry to say, they are young parents, okay? The girl\u2019s about twenty years old.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n [In response to why the hospital workers would send home an African American baby before it seemed ready to go home] \u201cThat\u2019s because we\u2019re African Americans. I\u2019m sorry to say, it\u2019s African Americans that they let go because we only receiving Medicaid.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n [After being in the hospital and giving birth] \u201cThrow you out in the street. Throw your babies out in the street like who gives a damn about you. A, a, another black person, black baby gone\u2014Bye-bye. So we ain\u2019t got to worry about that baby growing up, carrying no gun, or being a hoe on the corner. That\u2019s just how I look at it. That\u2019s my point. Because if it was a Caucasian baby, a middle-class baby, they, they would have been up in there, that baby would have been taken care of.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n Facilitator: So, so where, where are the services needed the most then, you know, prenatal, after losing a baby?<\/span><\/p>\n Response: \u201cEverywhere, everywhere.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAfter losing a child. They need to get some type of grieving pro\u2014or counseling, you know. Or some classes started.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI had my room upstairs and my mom had her room downstairs. My mom\u2014and cousins\u2014live in our home. My mom was living downstairs, my room upstairs. Two other rooms upstairs, and there\u2019s men in her room. That\u2019s how I begin getting molested.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cMy uncle had started raping his daughter, which was eight. He, that\u2019s when he started raping me at the age of eight…I ran. And I ran and I ran and I didn\u2019t stop till I got home. And I was crying when I got home but all my mother said to me\u2014cuz he\u2019s supposed to oh, oh, oh, pay me for babysitting but I\u2019m not babysitting\u2014he\u2019s fucking me. Okay. So, I run all the way home, my mom, I\u2019m crying, I got right in my room\u2014a one-bedroom apartment, may I remind you\u2014come out the room, she calls me out the room, she said she looked\u2014\u201cDid he give you the money?\u201d\u2014I\u2019m crying. Not once did she say what\u2019s wrong with me, this and that.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cDo you know how it is on a black, young African child\u2014this is why we don\u2019t tell people nothing. Don\u2019t nobody believe us. When we reach out: \u2018Oh no, this couldn\u2019t happen. They too close to this. They this, they that.\u2019 Listen to your child.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to commit suicide. I wanted to do all type of stuff. You know? And that reflects me on in my life what that got me in, what that had got me in. I wanted that attention I never had got. And when I got that attention, the attention with the wine and dine, it was good so you ain\u2019t care about the fighting\u2014okay\u2014okay, I got a busted lip today, or, you know what I\u2019m saying? I\u2019d just go to the Y for a while. And then all of a sudden, he\u2019s gonna come ring that bell and guess where you\u2019re gonna go\u2014right back out.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI suffered from depression after my kids, and I didn\u2019t even know I <\/span>had<\/span><\/i> depression at first.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cAnd the psychiatrist is putting you on these other med\u2014pills. But you can\u2019t be on this medication when you got this baby because then you\u2019re gonna have a neglect charge because you fell asleep on the baby. The baby could have choked\u2014you don\u2019t know how the baby died, now. Cuz you\u2019re doped up on what they gave you.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be more postpartum care and definitely parenting support. Whether after you have a baby, or after you don\u2019t. You still need support. It\u2019s like, they don\u2019t act like you\u2019re having extreme trauma.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI lost my baby and I\u2019m sitting in a room and all I hear are babies crying. That is traumatic. Because you\u2019re trying to figure out: What would my baby\u2019s cry sound like?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -YWCA<\/b><\/p>\n Bronson Social Workers (White Women)<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cThese moms who did everything right, you know, who planned, who\u2026 you know who have either infertility that cannot get pregnant or have had multiple miscarriages or you know whatever their circumstances is but then they see so and so\u2019s sister, or this other person, who doesn\u2019t take care of their kids and shouldn\u2019t have their children or is a horrible mom or horrible conditions for these kids and their children are alive and whatever level of thriving. My daughter works in the ERIC and has been there for 8 years almost now and, I\u2019ll tell you, she said I\u2019m not gonna have children. She said, I just\u2026 It drives me crazy to be in that ERIC and all these parents coming through there with these kids that\u2026 um, ya know, can\u2019t take care of them, don\u2019t have a clue\u2026 life is gonna be terrible. And they see these other ones who come in with miscarriages and things like that and it\u2019s just not fair. It made her question her faith, it made her question everything, and when you start doing those kinds of things you see those high levels of burn out and compassion fatigue. And I hear that at my share table too. Why? Why me? Why did my child die and this person who just had their fifth child and didn\u2019t want it. -social worker, Bronson<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSelf-care is real important to do in this kind of work. It affects you. If it didn\u2019t affect you\u2026 I cry with my families, you know, people have said to me I can\u2019t do that, nurses especially, and I said the day I stop crying with these families that are going through stuff is the day that I need to stop doing this kind of work.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n -Social Worker, Bronson<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI think for our staff in terms of how it affects us, sometimes if we hear about a baby that we have discharged that then ends up on the news because of \u201cshaken baby\u201d or some unsafe sleep situation\u2026 there\u2019s a lot of just anger, questioning. Why was this?… Maybe CPS must have been off? Why was this baby allowed to go home with these parents?… The system failed.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n
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