Yvette Allen-Campbell - Black, Pregnant and Loving It: The Comprehensive Pregnancy Guide for Todays Woman of Color

black,
pregnant
and
loving it

the comprehensive pregnancy guide
for todays woman of color

yvette allen-campbell and
suzanne greenidge-hewitt, MD

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Suzanne: I would like to dedicate this book to my grandparents, Edna Greenidge and Lawson Greenidge.

Yvette: I would like to dedicate this book to all of the little brown faces heading to schools across the country.

Lets face it, ladies. It can be hard living in a culture that equates beauty with long, flowing hair and a rail-thin body, especially when youre the total opposite. Thats why we validate and affirm ourselves. Reading a book that echoes just how beautiful you are during one of the most natural and vulnerable times in your life is a gift. This book is a gift, as is the birth of a baby into our society. We all get one more chance for improvement. Women should be celebrated and feel good about showing their beautiful pregnant bodies, and that includes black women.

We want and need to connect to a group that best matches who we are. Researchers have found that people showed greater brain activity when viewing faces belonging to their own racial group than when gazing at faces of a different race. We all have a strong social need to belong, and thats why we buy Essence and Ebony magazines.

Whether you have just found out you are pregnant or are planning to start a family, one thing is for sure: you are holding the right book in your hands. Unlike any other pregnancy book, this one includes month-by-month illustrations of a beautiful African American mom-to-be. But that is just the icing on the cake. In clear, nonthreatening language, we lay out all of the most authoritative and up-to-date information you need and want as you make preparations for your new baby. There is nothing as reassuring as having answers at hand for all of the questions that arise. Weve done all we can to inform and reassure even the most anxious parents as well as childbirth veterans ready for their second or third babies.

I spent nineteen years writing Black, Pregnant and Loving It. My career in education gave me one impetus for the book. In 1997, I was the principal of a private school, having spent the previous ten years in the New York City Public School System as a speech teacher, supervisor of speech teachers and assistant principal. It was during those times that I came face-to-face with the reality that an alarming number of African American children, especially boys, were being placed in special education programs. I had great concerns for the trajectory of these childrens lives. Aside from some of the more obvious variables, such as systemic discrimination and cultural insensitivity, I wanted to know the differences, if any, in the development of white children and black children.

As I traced the development of specific skills in the two groups, I learned that many critical developmental milestones occur prenatally, before children are even born. Most alarming was that the gap started in the womb for many, with a disproportionate number of black children behind the curve. In 2000, twice as many black infants were born with low birth weight (developmentally delayed) than white infants, and three times as many black women died of complications of pregnancy and delivery than white women.

Armed with this information, I wanted to know what was on the market to inform pregnant women of the significance of this time in child development. On my trips to local bookstores, I discovered reams and reams of books on the topic. I found myself drawn to the pictures of the women with their huge bellies, almost in disbelief. None of the books showed pictures of pregnant sisters. None really spoke to me. Most of the books were clearly aimed at white women. When I read statements such as, Your skin will become pink or reddened, I couldnt help but wonder what that meant for me. We shouldnt have to accept white women as the standard by which all women are measured; especially when our situations and outcomes can be vastly different. It was obvious that there was a void in the market when it came to informing and celebrating the pregnant African American woman.

I just couldnt live with that! Not only were black babies and black women experiencing serious health problems at a disproportionate rate, but the available information wasnt even written for us. So in 2000, I sought out the expertise of an experienced, highly regarded black obstetrician/gynecologist who happened to be working tirelessly at Harlem Hospital in New York City, Suzanne Greenidge-Hewitt, MD FACOG (fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists). Harlem Hospital at that time had over 5,000 deliveries per year with the majority being African American infants. Dr. uzanne Greenidge-Hewitt and I began to write Black, Pregnant and Loving It in an attempt to respond to the unacceptable number of black women and black babies experiencing adverse pregnancy and childbirth outcomes. We finally completed the book and brought it into the world, a long gestation period, to be sure, but worth every bit of the time and effort it has taken to make the book all that it is meant to be.

Unfortunately, not a lot has changed since we started writing the book in 2000. Black children and their pregnant moms are still experiencing more than their fair share of difficulties and deficits during this precious time in their development. Dr. Greenidge-Hewitt has done her part caring for this vulnerable group. After a 26-year career in obstetrics and gynecology, becoming a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, laparoscopic/robotic gynecological surgeon, the founder and CEO of Woman to Woman OB/GYN and an avid spokesperson for womens reproductive health, she can proudly proclaim the healthy delivery of over 15,000 babies in her career. Although there are now a couple of books on the market aimed specifically at black women, none of them follow and illustrate the process of pregnancy and childbirth in the comprehensive and visual way that we do in Black, Pregnant and Loving It.

Everyone wants to identify with an image that they find desirable. Black, Pregnant and Loving It provides that opportunity; presenting realistic images and critically important information for the woman of color. My 30 years as an educator and my extensive research into the subject (with the help of Dr. Greenidge-Hewitt) make us uniquely qualified to bring this much-needed book into the world.