The Amsterdam Information not too long ago interviewed Samantha Banerjee, government director of PUSH for Empowered Being pregnant, which has a mission of lowering the incidence of preventable stillbirth in america, after the group helped assist a digital press convention with the Mobilize Maternal Well being Coalition on February. 4, 2025, to announce the “Empowering Reproductive Justice Marketing campaign.” The marketing campaign will deal with maternal healthcare points in New York, with a deal with legislative measures such because the Paid Depart after Stillbirth, to assist equitable healthcare for all.
The occasion included reproductive justice organizations, public officers,and advocates. Invited company included Jumaane Williams, public advocate for New York Metropolis; Vanesa Gibson, Bronx borough president, Samantha; Banerjee; and different consultants.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
AmNews: Please inform our readers about how you bought concerned with this work and on this group?
Samantha Bannerjee (SB): I’m a stillbirth mother. My daughter Alana was born nonetheless in 2013, two days earlier than her due date, after [I had] a very regular and wholesome being pregnant. [We] walked into the hospital pondering we’d be bringing residence our child lady, the primary grandchild on each side of our household. I used to be advised all through all the being pregnant that it was textbook and low danger and all the nice issues, solely to be advised that she now not had a heartbeat, so we have been utterly blindsided.
I used to be not an uninformed pregnant particular person, however I by no means even heard the phrase stillbirth outdoors of a Victorian context, had no concept it was taking place to anybody these days, not to mention that it might occur to me. That was how I discovered myself right here on this group.
I’m now the chief director of Push for Empowered Being pregnant. We’re a New York-based
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nationwide 501c3 public charity devoted to ending preventable stillbirth. Push was began in 2021 by mother and father like me throughout the U.S. who skilled probably preventable stillbirths. We stated we’re coming collectively and we’re going to take huge, daring motion on a nationwide scale to guarantee that different mother and father know that is taking place and tips on how to decrease the danger of it taking place to them, and to verify extra importantly that our public well being system acknowledges this disaster,which is claiming the lives of 65 kids each single day on this nation.
AmNews: Please describe the “Empowering Reproductive Justice Marketing campaign” digital press convention on Feb. 4, 2025.
SB: This occasion was to announce the Empowering Reproductive Justice Marketing campaign by the Mobilized Maternal Well being Coalition (MMHC). We had a number of advocates from all totally different points of maternal well being clarify the state of maternal well being, maternal mortality, and stillbirth in New York State and why it’s vital for this coalition to exist. We had a wide range of audio system discuss in regards to the totally different payments and points that this coalition goes to be advocating for collectively. We had advocates and households instantly from the communities come on to share their private experiences.
AmNews: What ideas would you want to go away with our readers?
SB: Black mothers are twice as more likely to expertise a stillbirth attributable to systemic racism, implicit bias, structural elements, [similar to what] we see with maternal mortality. Each of those points are brought on by plenty of the identical root causes, which signifies that the prevention strategies are additionally very a lot aligned. Most of that’s listening to oldsters respecting us once we report that there’s one thing fallacious with our pregnancies, taking it critically, and usually equipping individuals with the knowledge they should advocate for themselves.
We work intently with plenty of the main Black maternal well being organizations. Right here in New York, we [work with] Converse! Transfer! Change! Coalition, which is run by the Arya Basis; Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Motion Challenge and the Tatia Oden French Memorial Basis; and people from the communities like doulas, beginning staff, researchers, and docs — individuals coming collectively to say we’d like improved being pregnant outcomes for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people who find themselves on the highest danger.
