“I’m sorry, there was nothing else to do. We lost her.”

In the U.S., more and more birthing people, especially women of color, die in childbirth each year. The feature documentary Delivering Justice: A Movement Is Born will investigate why, and will follow pregnant mothers, midwives, and leaders — who are growing a movement to achieve “birth equity.”

Maternal mortality does not inherently sound like a social justice or human rights issue, but it is: emerging research reveals that a primary reason so many women die in U.S. hospitals is institutionalized racism, implicit bias, and misogyny.  Americans, particularly women of color, often receive substandard care before, during, and after childbirth. A May, 2019 CDC report revealed that obstetricians’ implicit bias contributes to an increased loss of life, and that most of these deaths are preventable.  And for every person who dies, another seventy nearly do;  obstetric violence and birth trauma, while common, are rarely discussed.  

“Birth equity,” as the burgeoning movement names it, is a complex series of interconnected social issues – racial, economic, and gender-based – which can be used to measure how our society values (or doesn’t equitably value) all human life. The solutions to something so complex and messy, so difficult to acknowledge, are not simple, nor easy. To save mothers/parents-to-be and babies from dying, it seems, we literally have to address our own biases as a society, work together across racial divides, and build bridges of care between community-based birth centers and behemoth corporate hospitals. Delivering Justice will dive directly into the center of this high-stakes battle.

As one of several social justice issues affecting women starts to inch its way into national consciousness, Americans from many walks of life are beginning to work to reverse the trend, and it is their imperfect, underdog quest that we hope to centralize in the film. Inspired by the successes of Black Lives Matter, the March for Women’s Lives and #MeToo, and harkening to the historical ways birth was practiced within communities; birthing centers and collectives are springing up to provide culturally appropriate, community-based care. Care providers and researchers are working to gain exposure for the problems and solutions. U.S. congress members (finally, Moms in the House!), mayors, and presidential candidates are putting forward policies addressing different aspects of the issue. Celebrities like Beyoncé, Serena Williams, and Christy Turlington Burns are bringing more awareness to the mainstream. And grassroots groups of survivors, midwives and other community-based providers are working to provide the quality and continuity of care that all mothers deserve. Some midwives and doula groups are beginning to cross the divide, working with local hospitals to address implicit bias head-on.

Delivering Justice will, via a series of both intimate/personal and very public stories, investigate a series of root causes and issues that compound to put tens of thousands of pregnant people and babies at risk each year. We believe we are on the cusp of change, and that we have a lot to learn from witnessing pregnancy, birth, and postpartum from the perspectives of the people going through it; from the women and care providers who are helming a burgeoning movement; and from researchers and practitioners across the globe. We hope to use our positions as storytellers, journalists, and mother-survivors to interrogate the status quo and provoke a much-needed conversation — before more and more parents-to-be are lost.

More:

Filmmakers Explore the Intersection of Arts and Social Justice at VCFA, Filmmaker Magazine, March 10, 2023

Interview with Director Jen Gilomen by Center for Arts & Social Justice