National
After Charges Filed and Curfew Lifted, Baltimore Regroups
Two young girls talk to national guardsmen outside of city hall in Baltimore, Md., on Friday, May 1. (Freddie Allen/NNPA News Wire Service)
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent
BALTIMORE (NNPA) – Friday afternoon was clear and cool enough for a light jacket, although most people wore T-shirts and shorts in Baltimore, Md. The Inner Harbor and much of city hall grounds were barricaded with low metal gates and by 6 pm, the Inner Harbor was free from the lively weekend energy that a normal spring Friday after work crowd would bring. National guardsmen milled about, weapons down, some with stern gazes others talking in hushed, but relaxed tones.
Waiting for a CNN interview at City Hall, Neill Franklin, the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of current and former members of the criminal justice system that advocates for drug policy reform, said that the Baltimore city police officers charged Friday had multiple attempts to render aid and they failed to so even though Freddie Gray requested it.
“I’m not surprised, this is business as usual, unfortunately for many of the neighborhoods in Baltimore city,” said Franklin. “This time someone died, which has brought the attention to this type of behavior of our police officers.”
Franklin said that in 2005, after Baltimore police officers arrested more than 108,000 people, the state’s attorney’s office was forced to vacate roughly 20 percent of the arrest without filing charges because there was no probable cause for the arrest, similar to what happened with Freddie Gray.
“Hopefully, this is a turning point, I hope it is, but I think the Fraternal Order of Police missed an opportunity today,” said Franklin, referring to a statement that the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) made shortly after State Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges would be filed against six police officers. “They can still say we support our officers and their families, but at the same time they should have said and yes we want to partner with you community to figure out a path forward to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Franklin said that he feels bad for those police officers standing in the wings who want to to good and who are thinking maybe this is a turning point.
“Then you have the FOP say this nonsense,” said Franklin.
Franklin said that he hopes that residents come together with city officials and members of law enforcement to do an assessment of the police department, body-worn cameras and ways to protect officers who want to come forward when they witness fellow officers behaving badly.
Jhanee Braswell, 26, a resident of Baltimore’s east side, said that Baltimore needed the riots and the national media attention because the policed officers simply don’t care.
Braswell said that she was surprised that the state’s attorney’s office filed charges so soon. So many people get shot and killed everyday.
Braswell said that this is just another situation where things would have blown over without the cell phone footage of Gray’s arrest and the riots last Monday.
The last time Braswell was in a paddy wagon was for fighting downtown. All three times Braswell was in the paddy wagon, she said that a police officer walked her up the steps and secured in the back of the vehicle.
“I’ve been in the back of a paddy wagon and there’s no way that you can do all of that, because it’s too small to jerk yourself around like that to hurt yourself,” said Braswell.
That’s why she believes that either Gray was injured before he was placed in the wagon unsecured or that transport officer was driving erratically and contributed to Gray’s injury.
“I’m kind of glad that they did start a riot and they did start all of that stuff,” said Braswell, even though she recognized that residents like her will likely foot some of the bill for clean up and to repair the damaged properties via tax dollars. If they hadn’t burned the CVS and looted businesses, Braswell said, no one would have been held accountable for Gray’s death.
“I hope [the officers] go to jail and that this won’t be a recurring thing, because everyone should be treated fairly,” said Braswell.
“If your protocol is to walk the person up into the paddy wagon and sit them down and make sure that they are secured safely,” then you have to do that for everyone, because everyone deserves the same treatment, because their safety matters, Braswell said.
Rev. Jamal Bryant, the pastor of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, said it was a great thing for the city of Baltimore and the Black community to turn on the nightly news and see the mug shots and names of the six police officers involved in the wrongful arrest of Gray that ultimately contributed to his death, said Bryant.
“I’m excited about the new page that American history is on,” said Bryant. “All these cameras out here is the fruit of the work of the people that marched day and day out,” said Bryant motioning to the myriad camera crews and news tents that littered the grassy mall in front of city hall.
“The national news media came, because Freddie died if he had lived and walked away with a cane or on crutches or [rolled away] in a wheelchair, they would have swept it away,” said Bryant.
Bryant added that the fact that Gray’s arrest and anguished screams were caught on camera as police officers dragged him to the transport vehicle also contributed to the national news coverage.
“It was too eerie and too out of order,” said Bryant.
Police in Baltimore need body cameras right now and turned on with audio, said Bryant, adding that he didn’t understand why the city was still under curfew on Friday.
“I’m confused and perplexed why the Inner Harbor closed at 6 pm,” said Bryant. “There’s nothing open on Light Street. There’s nothing open on Pratt Street.
“It says that there is a reduced expectation of the civility of Black folks even in victory,” said Bryant. “You think if the [Baltimore] Ravens had won tonight they would have shut it down? No. Because Black people won they don’t know how to respond, because they are used to us losing.”
Cars horns blared some in support others in frustration over the hundreds of people gathered at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and W. North Avenue The burned out CVS was boarded up and police officers in riot gear blocked the street adjacent to the CVS. Some people danced others held “#BlackLivesMatter” signs. The crowd was very diverse as all ages, races and ethnic groups were out celebrating Mosby’s announcement and calling for police reform.
Timeeka Addison, a resident of Southwest Baltimore who works at CEASE (an acronym for “Communities Engaged and Advocating for a Smoke-Free Environments”), an organization that helps residents to stop smoking, danced in street with friends and said that the curfew should have been lifted sooner.
“We should be able to celebrate all night long, this is a victory,” said Addison. “There’s no need to shut the city down right now.”
She doesn’t believe that if people hadn’t looted the stores and burned buildings and police cars that Mosby’s announcement would have been the same.
“People have been marching for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s sad that it happened, I’m upset that it happened, but it needed to happen,” said Addison. “Everywhere else that this happens it just goes away, [officials] brush everything under the rug and say, ‘just take what we do.’ Baltimore actually made a statement and said, ‘We’re not just accepting that. You have to do something.’ Everybody said that, ‘You did it Ferguson, you did it in Florida, you can not do that here.’”
Follow Freddie Allen on Twitter at @freddieallenjr.
###
Black History
Listening as a Lifeline: A Doula’s Witness to Black Maternal Health
OAKLAND POST — Maternal mortality and pregnancy-related mortality use different time frames and methods and are not interchangeable. Finalized 2024 CDC data recorded 649 maternal deaths nationally. The overall rate was 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, but for non-Hispanic Black women it was 44.8, compared with 14.2 for White women and 12.1 for Hispanic women.
Word Count: 1058
Note: Client A, B & C, names are withheld for privacy; these accounts reflect my recollections as their Doula.
Client A rocked her hips on a birthing ball, surrounded by pale wood and warm textiles in a softly lit Scandinavian-style office. I was her doula through a Southern California maternal health company combining nurse-led care, technology, and wraparound support.
She was a healthy Black woman in her thirties. Her baby girl was doing well; her partner took notes as we discussed labor and advocacy.
Then we turned to their chosen hospital. I knew it well—and remembered a phrase from another client’s experience: “Policy of Sovereignty.”
Client B had been told she needed a repeat cesarean as a precaution, though the reasoning was unclear. Her obstetrician, who performed her first cesarean two years earlier, had assured her throughout pregnancy that she was healthy, healed, and ready for a vaginal birth. We asked staff to review her chart, consult her obstetrician, and reconsider immediate surgery. Instead, they invoked the “Policy of Sovereignty.”
The physician on duty, we were told, had final authority, regardless of her established care plan. I asked whether an ultrasound or reassessing the baby’s position could offer clarity. Cesareans can be lifesaving. But were Client B’s history, informed consent, and circumstances guiding this decision—or was routine overriding individualized care? We kept asking for her obstetrician. Beneath every request was a deeper question: Was she being heard?
The Numbers Behind the Stories
Statistics arrive in clean columns. The experiences behind them do not.
Maternal mortality and pregnancy-related mortality use different time frames and methods and are not interchangeable. Finalized 2024 CDC data recorded 649 maternal deaths nationally. The overall rate was 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, but for non-Hispanic Black women it was 44.8, compared with 14.2 for White women and 12.1 for Hispanic women.
In California, Black birthing people experienced 56.5 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births during 2020–2022—3.8 times the White rate and four times the Asian rate.
As a doula serving Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, I see faces behind those numbers. I remember concerns raised softly, then firmly, then desperately. I am tired of watching Black families enter spaces meant to protect them, only to discover they must defend themselves while laboring, bleeding, trembling, or recovering.
Returning to Client A
Client A’s labor stretched nearly 48 hours. As her condition worsened, she, her partner, and I asked whether a cesarean should happen sooner. A provider questioned my place as a doula, then said she was next.
Six more hours passed.
She entered surgery visibly ill with a serious uterine infection, her baby malpositioned and stuck. Her partner later recalled the provider saying, “This baby would never have made it through the birth canal.”
Those words landed like a blow. Our urgency had been treated as ignorance. With Client B, we questioned why surgery was inevitable. With Client A, why it was delayed. Doula advocacy is not about one kind of birth. It is about informed consent, individualized care, and timely action. Hospital routine should never outweigh the person carrying the risk.
Survival Cannot Be the Standard
The Black maternal health crisis includes unequal care, untreated conditions, racial bias, delayed referrals, poor communication, and inadequate postpartum support. It is about birth plans respected only until a hospital becomes less busy and postpartum care that asks whether a mother survived, not whether she has what she needs to recover.
Survival cannot be the standard. Technology can support care, but it cannot replace human connection. An algorithm cannot detect fear in a patient’s eyes, and a mission statement alone cannot ensure adequate staffing or culturally responsive care.
The Story of Client C
Before I arrived, I heard the chaos through Client C’s phone. Staff struggled to locate her baby’s heartbeat on an external monitor as her fear and blood pressure rose. I pleaded for an internal electrode before surgery.
“There’s not enough time,” a nurse said.
“I would like to wait for my doula,” Client C called out.
But she was medicated, hurried through consent, and wheeled away while I listened.
In the operating room, after a shift change, another nurse placed an internal electrode and said, “The previous monitor wasn’t working.”
No one responded.
According to her father, the obstetrician avoided eye contact: “We need to move forward.”
Surgery may still have been necessary; that was not mine to determine. But if faulty equipment helped create the emergency, the family deserved acknowledgment and explanation—not silence. No family should have to wonder whether major surgery followed an unavoidable crisis or a machine failure no one recognized in time.
From Prevention to Accountability
After supporting nearly 100 families, I have learned that danger often begins before admission. I have urged clients to seek care—and heard why they feared returning: dismissed pain, harsh words, shame for asking questions.
Care cannot be holistic where Black families do not feel safe enough to speak or return. Representation matters, but providers of color cannot repair inequity alone. They need adequate staffing, mentorship, culturally responsive training, reliable equipment, and colleagues that are reflective of all the aforementioned. It’s not the Black providers job to care for just the Black patients, everyone should have the same goal.
The Momnibus Act, California’s Medi-Cal doula benefit, the Transforming Maternal Health Model and the Perinatal Equity Initiative require more than promises; they need sustained funding, reliable reimbursement and accountable implementation.
Birth should be sacred. Yet too many Black birthing people arrive carrying the burden of proving their pain is real. A doula can listen, educate, comfort, and advocate—but cannot repair a system that refuses to listen. The true measure of progress is what happens when a Black birthing person says, “Something is wrong.”
Are they believed? When equipment fails, is that failure acknowledged? Do families leave not merely alive, but safe, respected, supported, and whole?
Until those answers are consistently yes, California’s maternal health success story remains unfinished.
About the Author
Antoinette Stewart-Eneh is a mother of two, holistic maternal wellness advocate, and birth and postpartum doula who has supported families since 2019. She serves as program operations coordinator for Frontline Doulas, a volunteer client coordinator with the Joy in Birthing Foundation and a childbirth educator in South Los Angeles. She is studying to become a midwife and lactation educator.
Commentary
‘We Don’t Talk Trash — We Pick Up Trash!’
OAKLAND POST — Following the cleanup, Jones talked with Richard Johnson, CEO of Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB). Johnson said he wanted to bring formerly incarcerated nonprofits together not only to help clean up the city, but also to bring youth with them to mentor the next generation.
When community activist Jonathan “Fitness” Jones heard concerns from senior residents in East Oakland about illegal dumping, recurring trash issues and the health hazards they created, he decided that watching the problem was not enough.
Jones, a member of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) and an Oakland Private Industry Council board member, learned that seniors were frustrated by the recurrence of illegal dumping even when trash has been cleared. Recurring trash can contribute to unsanitary conditions, attract rodents and leave residents feeling that their neighborhoods are being overlooked.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Mr. Jones joined High Street Coalition volunteers at Dick’s Donuts near High Street and Quigley Street, spending the morning picking up trash and helping beautify the surrounding neighborhood.
High Street Coalition volunteers organize community cleanups on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.
Following the cleanup, Jones talked with Richard Johnson, CEO of Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB). Johnson said he wanted to bring formerly incarcerated nonprofits together not only to help clean up the city, but also to bring youth with them to mentor the next generation.
Jones and Johnson discussed developing a community model that brings formerly incarcerated individuals, Oakland youth and nonprofit organizations together to clean and beautify the city.
The vision is to create opportunities for formerly incarcerated adults to take leadership roles while mentoring young people through hands-on community service. The program could also provide youth with opportunities to develop leadership skills, learn teamwork and responsibility, and potentially gain employment experience.
The goal is bigger than removing trash from the streets. It is about restoring neighborhoods while building relationships between generations and creating opportunities for people with lived experience to give back to their communities.
Jones believes the message is simple:
“We don’t talk trash, we pick up trash.”
The proposed collaboration seeks to bring Oakland nonprofits, formerly incarcerated leaders, youth, residents, businesses and community organizations together around a shared purpose — cleaning the town, beautifying Oakland and building a stronger community together.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of September 30 – October 6, 2026
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 30 – October 6, 2026
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Listening as a Lifeline: A Doula’s Witness to Black Maternal Health
New Protections for Ticket Buyers: Gov. Newsom Signs Assemblymember Isaac Bryan’s Bill
‘We Don’t Talk Trash — We Pick Up Trash!’
Zakiya Jendayi Arrested, Locked Out of Home by Sheriff’s Deputies
Oakland Post: Week of September 30 – October 6, 2026
Asm. Corey Jackson Announces Launch of 24-Hour Childcare in His District
IN MEMORIAM: The Rev. Leon “Sonny” Clark, Longtime Orange County Pastor and Community Leader, Dies at 72
Poll: Becerra Widens His Lead Over Hilton; Californians Split on Wealth Tax
From Historic Memories to New Possibilities: Oakland Celebrates Coliseum 60
County Office of Education Says OUSD Finances Are Getting Healthier, Materially Stronger
LIVE FREE Sunday Dinner Brings Faith, Fellowship and Civic Conversation to Oakland
Remembering Chauncey Bailey as Student Journalists Face Threats to Truth-Telling
BLACspace Cooperative Invites Bay Area to Experience Oakland’s Black Cultural Ecosystem Through a BLAC Map Tour + Party
In Wake of Death on Doorstep, Williams Chapel Baptist Church Calls for Better Care, Funding for Unhoused
Oakland Centenarian Nuna McKee Honored!
Standoff for Justice: Our Homes Are Worth Fighting For
Oakland Post: Week of August 26 – September 1, 2026
Frontier Airlines’ Return to Oakland Airport Brings Flights, Jobs and Opportunity
Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Hilton Blasts California New Tire Rules; Newsom Hits Back
Chef Sharon Lee Blends Culinary Excellence, Education and Empowerment
Jackie Wright Champions Bay Area Stories, Filmmakers and Cultural Institutions
Misnamed ‘Parent’ PAC Seeks to Influence Oakland School Board Elections
Oakland Coliseum Project Opens Door for Small Businesses to Build Bigger
Big City Mayors Ask for “Yes” Vote on Housing Bond Measure; Conservatives Say “No”
Gov. Newsom’s Latest Appointees Include Sacramento Advocate for Formerly Incarcerated Students; State’s New Tech Chief
Longtime BWOPA Member Brendalyn Goodall Appointed to California Workforce Development Board
Gov. Newsom Signs Law Shielding Immigration Aid Workers From Doxing Threats
Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber Urges Californians to Vote Early as Voter ID Battle Intensifies
Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026
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Media Monday 6/22/26
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National
After Charges Filed and Curfew Lifted, Baltimore Regroups
Two young girls talk to national guardsmen outside of city hall in Baltimore, Md., on Friday, May 1. (Freddie Allen/NNPA News Wire Service)
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior Washington Correspondent
BALTIMORE (NNPA) – Friday afternoon was clear and cool enough for a light jacket, although most people wore T-shirts and shorts in Baltimore, Md. The Inner Harbor and much of city hall grounds were barricaded with low metal gates and by 6 pm, the Inner Harbor was free from the lively weekend energy that a normal spring Friday after work crowd would bring. National guardsmen milled about, weapons down, some with stern gazes others talking in hushed, but relaxed tones.
Waiting for a CNN interview at City Hall, Neill Franklin, the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of current and former members of the criminal justice system that advocates for drug policy reform, said that the Baltimore city police officers charged Friday had multiple attempts to render aid and they failed to so even though Freddie Gray requested it.
“I’m not surprised, this is business as usual, unfortunately for many of the neighborhoods in Baltimore city,” said Franklin. “This time someone died, which has brought the attention to this type of behavior of our police officers.”
Franklin said that in 2005, after Baltimore police officers arrested more than 108,000 people, the state’s attorney’s office was forced to vacate roughly 20 percent of the arrest without filing charges because there was no probable cause for the arrest, similar to what happened with Freddie Gray.
“Hopefully, this is a turning point, I hope it is, but I think the Fraternal Order of Police missed an opportunity today,” said Franklin, referring to a statement that the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) made shortly after State Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced charges would be filed against six police officers. “They can still say we support our officers and their families, but at the same time they should have said and yes we want to partner with you community to figure out a path forward to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Franklin said that he feels bad for those police officers standing in the wings who want to to good and who are thinking maybe this is a turning point.
“Then you have the FOP say this nonsense,” said Franklin.
Franklin said that he hopes that residents come together with city officials and members of law enforcement to do an assessment of the police department, body-worn cameras and ways to protect officers who want to come forward when they witness fellow officers behaving badly.
Jhanee Braswell, 26, a resident of Baltimore’s east side, said that Baltimore needed the riots and the national media attention because the policed officers simply don’t care.
Braswell said that she was surprised that the state’s attorney’s office filed charges so soon. So many people get shot and killed everyday.
Braswell said that this is just another situation where things would have blown over without the cell phone footage of Gray’s arrest and the riots last Monday.
The last time Braswell was in a paddy wagon was for fighting downtown. All three times Braswell was in the paddy wagon, she said that a police officer walked her up the steps and secured in the back of the vehicle.
“I’ve been in the back of a paddy wagon and there’s no way that you can do all of that, because it’s too small to jerk yourself around like that to hurt yourself,” said Braswell.
That’s why she believes that either Gray was injured before he was placed in the wagon unsecured or that transport officer was driving erratically and contributed to Gray’s injury.
“I’m kind of glad that they did start a riot and they did start all of that stuff,” said Braswell, even though she recognized that residents like her will likely foot some of the bill for clean up and to repair the damaged properties via tax dollars. If they hadn’t burned the CVS and looted businesses, Braswell said, no one would have been held accountable for Gray’s death.
“I hope [the officers] go to jail and that this won’t be a recurring thing, because everyone should be treated fairly,” said Braswell.
“If your protocol is to walk the person up into the paddy wagon and sit them down and make sure that they are secured safely,” then you have to do that for everyone, because everyone deserves the same treatment, because their safety matters, Braswell said.
Rev. Jamal Bryant, the pastor of Empowerment Temple in Baltimore, said it was a great thing for the city of Baltimore and the Black community to turn on the nightly news and see the mug shots and names of the six police officers involved in the wrongful arrest of Gray that ultimately contributed to his death, said Bryant.
“I’m excited about the new page that American history is on,” said Bryant. “All these cameras out here is the fruit of the work of the people that marched day and day out,” said Bryant motioning to the myriad camera crews and news tents that littered the grassy mall in front of city hall.
“The national news media came, because Freddie died if he had lived and walked away with a cane or on crutches or [rolled away] in a wheelchair, they would have swept it away,” said Bryant.
Bryant added that the fact that Gray’s arrest and anguished screams were caught on camera as police officers dragged him to the transport vehicle also contributed to the national news coverage.
“It was too eerie and too out of order,” said Bryant.
Police in Baltimore need body cameras right now and turned on with audio, said Bryant, adding that he didn’t understand why the city was still under curfew on Friday.
“I’m confused and perplexed why the Inner Harbor closed at 6 pm,” said Bryant. “There’s nothing open on Light Street. There’s nothing open on Pratt Street.
“It says that there is a reduced expectation of the civility of Black folks even in victory,” said Bryant. “You think if the [Baltimore] Ravens had won tonight they would have shut it down? No. Because Black people won they don’t know how to respond, because they are used to us losing.”
Cars horns blared some in support others in frustration over the hundreds of people gathered at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and W. North Avenue The burned out CVS was boarded up and police officers in riot gear blocked the street adjacent to the CVS. Some people danced others held “#BlackLivesMatter” signs. The crowd was very diverse as all ages, races and ethnic groups were out celebrating Mosby’s announcement and calling for police reform.
Timeeka Addison, a resident of Southwest Baltimore who works at CEASE (an acronym for “Communities Engaged and Advocating for a Smoke-Free Environments”), an organization that helps residents to stop smoking, danced in street with friends and said that the curfew should have been lifted sooner.
“We should be able to celebrate all night long, this is a victory,” said Addison. “There’s no need to shut the city down right now.”
She doesn’t believe that if people hadn’t looted the stores and burned buildings and police cars that Mosby’s announcement would have been the same.
“People have been marching for a long time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s sad that it happened, I’m upset that it happened, but it needed to happen,” said Addison. “Everywhere else that this happens it just goes away, [officials] brush everything under the rug and say, ‘just take what we do.’ Baltimore actually made a statement and said, ‘We’re not just accepting that. You have to do something.’ Everybody said that, ‘You did it Ferguson, you did it in Florida, you can not do that here.’”
Follow Freddie Allen on Twitter at @freddieallenjr.
###
Black History
Listening as a Lifeline: A Doula’s Witness to Black Maternal Health
OAKLAND POST — Maternal mortality and pregnancy-related mortality use different time frames and methods and are not interchangeable. Finalized 2024 CDC data recorded 649 maternal deaths nationally. The overall rate was 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, but for non-Hispanic Black women it was 44.8, compared with 14.2 for White women and 12.1 for Hispanic women.
Word Count: 1058
Note: Client A, B & C, names are withheld for privacy; these accounts reflect my recollections as their Doula.
Client A rocked her hips on a birthing ball, surrounded by pale wood and warm textiles in a softly lit Scandinavian-style office. I was her doula through a Southern California maternal health company combining nurse-led care, technology, and wraparound support.
She was a healthy Black woman in her thirties. Her baby girl was doing well; her partner took notes as we discussed labor and advocacy.
Then we turned to their chosen hospital. I knew it well—and remembered a phrase from another client’s experience: “Policy of Sovereignty.”
Client B had been told she needed a repeat cesarean as a precaution, though the reasoning was unclear. Her obstetrician, who performed her first cesarean two years earlier, had assured her throughout pregnancy that she was healthy, healed, and ready for a vaginal birth. We asked staff to review her chart, consult her obstetrician, and reconsider immediate surgery. Instead, they invoked the “Policy of Sovereignty.”
The physician on duty, we were told, had final authority, regardless of her established care plan. I asked whether an ultrasound or reassessing the baby’s position could offer clarity. Cesareans can be lifesaving. But were Client B’s history, informed consent, and circumstances guiding this decision—or was routine overriding individualized care? We kept asking for her obstetrician. Beneath every request was a deeper question: Was she being heard?
The Numbers Behind the Stories
Statistics arrive in clean columns. The experiences behind them do not.
Maternal mortality and pregnancy-related mortality use different time frames and methods and are not interchangeable. Finalized 2024 CDC data recorded 649 maternal deaths nationally. The overall rate was 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, but for non-Hispanic Black women it was 44.8, compared with 14.2 for White women and 12.1 for Hispanic women.
In California, Black birthing people experienced 56.5 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births during 2020–2022—3.8 times the White rate and four times the Asian rate.
As a doula serving Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties, I see faces behind those numbers. I remember concerns raised softly, then firmly, then desperately. I am tired of watching Black families enter spaces meant to protect them, only to discover they must defend themselves while laboring, bleeding, trembling, or recovering.
Returning to Client A
Client A’s labor stretched nearly 48 hours. As her condition worsened, she, her partner, and I asked whether a cesarean should happen sooner. A provider questioned my place as a doula, then said she was next.
Six more hours passed.
She entered surgery visibly ill with a serious uterine infection, her baby malpositioned and stuck. Her partner later recalled the provider saying, “This baby would never have made it through the birth canal.”
Those words landed like a blow. Our urgency had been treated as ignorance. With Client B, we questioned why surgery was inevitable. With Client A, why it was delayed. Doula advocacy is not about one kind of birth. It is about informed consent, individualized care, and timely action. Hospital routine should never outweigh the person carrying the risk.
Survival Cannot Be the Standard
The Black maternal health crisis includes unequal care, untreated conditions, racial bias, delayed referrals, poor communication, and inadequate postpartum support. It is about birth plans respected only until a hospital becomes less busy and postpartum care that asks whether a mother survived, not whether she has what she needs to recover.
Survival cannot be the standard. Technology can support care, but it cannot replace human connection. An algorithm cannot detect fear in a patient’s eyes, and a mission statement alone cannot ensure adequate staffing or culturally responsive care.
The Story of Client C
Before I arrived, I heard the chaos through Client C’s phone. Staff struggled to locate her baby’s heartbeat on an external monitor as her fear and blood pressure rose. I pleaded for an internal electrode before surgery.
“There’s not enough time,” a nurse said.
“I would like to wait for my doula,” Client C called out.
But she was medicated, hurried through consent, and wheeled away while I listened.
In the operating room, after a shift change, another nurse placed an internal electrode and said, “The previous monitor wasn’t working.”
No one responded.
According to her father, the obstetrician avoided eye contact: “We need to move forward.”
Surgery may still have been necessary; that was not mine to determine. But if faulty equipment helped create the emergency, the family deserved acknowledgment and explanation—not silence. No family should have to wonder whether major surgery followed an unavoidable crisis or a machine failure no one recognized in time.
From Prevention to Accountability
After supporting nearly 100 families, I have learned that danger often begins before admission. I have urged clients to seek care—and heard why they feared returning: dismissed pain, harsh words, shame for asking questions.
Care cannot be holistic where Black families do not feel safe enough to speak or return. Representation matters, but providers of color cannot repair inequity alone. They need adequate staffing, mentorship, culturally responsive training, reliable equipment, and colleagues that are reflective of all the aforementioned. It’s not the Black providers job to care for just the Black patients, everyone should have the same goal.
The Momnibus Act, California’s Medi-Cal doula benefit, the Transforming Maternal Health Model and the Perinatal Equity Initiative require more than promises; they need sustained funding, reliable reimbursement and accountable implementation.
Birth should be sacred. Yet too many Black birthing people arrive carrying the burden of proving their pain is real. A doula can listen, educate, comfort, and advocate—but cannot repair a system that refuses to listen. The true measure of progress is what happens when a Black birthing person says, “Something is wrong.”
Are they believed? When equipment fails, is that failure acknowledged? Do families leave not merely alive, but safe, respected, supported, and whole?
Until those answers are consistently yes, California’s maternal health success story remains unfinished.
About the Author
Antoinette Stewart-Eneh is a mother of two, holistic maternal wellness advocate, and birth and postpartum doula who has supported families since 2019. She serves as program operations coordinator for Frontline Doulas, a volunteer client coordinator with the Joy in Birthing Foundation and a childbirth educator in South Los Angeles. She is studying to become a midwife and lactation educator.
Commentary
‘We Don’t Talk Trash — We Pick Up Trash!’
OAKLAND POST — Following the cleanup, Jones talked with Richard Johnson, CEO of Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB). Johnson said he wanted to bring formerly incarcerated nonprofits together not only to help clean up the city, but also to bring youth with them to mentor the next generation.
When community activist Jonathan “Fitness” Jones heard concerns from senior residents in East Oakland about illegal dumping, recurring trash issues and the health hazards they created, he decided that watching the problem was not enough.
Jones, a member of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG) and an Oakland Private Industry Council board member, learned that seniors were frustrated by the recurrence of illegal dumping even when trash has been cleared. Recurring trash can contribute to unsanitary conditions, attract rodents and leave residents feeling that their neighborhoods are being overlooked.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, Mr. Jones joined High Street Coalition volunteers at Dick’s Donuts near High Street and Quigley Street, spending the morning picking up trash and helping beautify the surrounding neighborhood.
High Street Coalition volunteers organize community cleanups on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.
Following the cleanup, Jones talked with Richard Johnson, CEO of Formerly Incarcerated Giving Back (FIGB). Johnson said he wanted to bring formerly incarcerated nonprofits together not only to help clean up the city, but also to bring youth with them to mentor the next generation.
Jones and Johnson discussed developing a community model that brings formerly incarcerated individuals, Oakland youth and nonprofit organizations together to clean and beautify the city.
The vision is to create opportunities for formerly incarcerated adults to take leadership roles while mentoring young people through hands-on community service. The program could also provide youth with opportunities to develop leadership skills, learn teamwork and responsibility, and potentially gain employment experience.
The goal is bigger than removing trash from the streets. It is about restoring neighborhoods while building relationships between generations and creating opportunities for people with lived experience to give back to their communities.
Jones believes the message is simple:
“We don’t talk trash, we pick up trash.”
The proposed collaboration seeks to bring Oakland nonprofits, formerly incarcerated leaders, youth, residents, businesses and community organizations together around a shared purpose — cleaning the town, beautifying Oakland and building a stronger community together.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of September 30 – October 6, 2026
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 30 – October 6, 2026
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