Before You Enter the Hospital
Three essential excerpts from Birthing While Black: A Hospital Guide
Birth in the U.S. is shaped by institutions that hold enormous power over maternal care — a reality underscored again and again by recent headlines. With nearly 98% of U.S. births taking place in hospitals, most families will navigate labor, delivery and postpartum care inside systems governed by policy, protocol and liability.
Birthing While Black: A Hospital Guide is a print zine developed by Borne to help families enter hospital birth with clarity and agency. It offers language, context and grounding so mothers and families can move through birth with intention rather than default compliance.
The three pieces below are excerpts from the zine and focus on clarifying your birth vision, building your birth team and honoring rest in the “fourth trimester” as essential care.
These are not just reads for pregnant people. They’re for partners, friends, sisters and anyone who wants to show up better for the mothers and growing families in their lives. Share accordingly.
And if you’d like to be notified when the print zine becomes available, comment below.
Thank you for this powerful resource and tool. I’d like to stay updated!
I am interested in your Hospital Guide.