Recommended Reading List
This list was prepared in collaboration with our resident Mental Health Advocate and Houston-based therapist and writer Araya Baker. If you’d like to contribute a resource to this list, please email martina@natalstories.com.
General Reading Articles
Birth Trauma Association: What Is Birth Trauma?
Northwestern University - Counseling: Supporting the Physical and Mental Health of New and Expectant Mothers
Babble: 7 Things No One Understands About Having A Child Who Was Born Premature
VICE: Black Women Share the Devastating Impact of Racism in Maternal Health Care
Advancing Birth Justice: Community-Based Doula Models as Standard Care for Ending Racial Disparities
The Guardian: Mothers of Premature Babies Also Need Care - As I Know Too Well
The Atlantic: Mothers Who Can’t Escape the Trauma of Childbirth
The Guardian: I Cannot Forget The Horror Of My Son’s Birth
VOX: What No One Tells New Moms What Pregnancy Can Do To Their Bodies
Psychology Today: Medical Trauma: When A Procedure Goes Wrong
Harvard University - Health: The Psychological Impact of Infertility and Its Treatment
BBC: The Effect of Childbirth No One Talks About
Womanly Mag: 13 Ways of Ignoring a Black Woman’s Birth Trauma (Poem)
The Guardian: If Even Beyonce Had A Rough Pregnancy, What Hope Do Other Black Women Have?
Diversity Inc: New Study Connects PTSD in Black Women to Preterm Birth
Books related to Black Birthing/Reproductive History & Justice
Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty (Dorothy Roberts)
Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth (Julia Oparah and Alicia Bonaparte)
Medical Apartheid (Harriet A. Washington)
Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (Loretta Loss)
My Brown Baby: On the Joys and Challenges of Raising African American Children (Denene Miller)
The Women Who Caught The Babies: A Story of African American Midwives (Eloise Greenfield)
Race, Stress, and Social Support: Addressing the Crisis in Black Infant Mortality (Fleda Mask Jackson)
Videos, Papers, and Studies related to Birthing/Reproductive Justice
Giving Voices to Mothers Study (The Birth Place Lab)
Examining the Burdens of Gendered Racism: Implications for the Pregnancy Outcomes of College-Educated African American Women (Maternal & Child Health Journal)
Legacy of the Black Midwife Presentation (Safia Monroe)
Therapy Reading Materials
SF World Conference: Strength Rebriefing, Not Trauma Debriefing
SolutionFocused.net: Helping Clients Heal From Trauma: Solution Focused Approach
PostPartumStress.com: How Do I Find a PPD Therapist?
PostPartumProgress.org: 8 Types of Psychotherapy for PPD Treatment
SafeHealthcareforEveryWoman.org: Experience of Medical Trauma Scale
GoodTherapy.org: Therapy for Pregnancy and Childbirth
Reuters: Trauma Therapy May Ease Distress for Mothers of Preemies
APA.org: Treating Postpartum Depression
Counseling.org: Postpartum Depression: What Counselors Need to Know