A jam packed day of lectures and guest speakers was on the agenda today. We had a bit of a chill today then we did the past few days. Which came as a surprise to many of us. I should have grabbed my jacket to put under my new coat, but I learned my lesson. The walk to BCU South campus took us about 25 minutes today because the streets were a little busier. It’s the only route to take, but the area is just so beautiful. It feels like you are taking the scenic route. I would recommend good shoes and a very warm coat for this trip. Very glad I went to grab a nice one yesterday. Otherwise I would have been shivering and my teeth chattering.

My favorite part out of the four lessons, was a tie between the midwifery with Kim and the Black Heritage Walk with Marcia. Both of these lovely women are so passionate about the work and they are funny. I genuinely felt like I was at home with my family members. The midwifery lecture opened my eyes to the importance of their role here in Birmingham and England as a whole. Their responsibility is to take care of mother and baby throughout the whole pregnancy and postpartum. The postpartum care is so important. Many women suffer from postpartum depression and having someone there as support would decrease the stress and anxiety. Kim also talked about them being independent and autonomous as healthcare provider. Which is stark contrast from our healthcare system. Midwives are independent, but they cannot work outside of the hospital. We do not have care centers that are specifically for midwives. She also mentioned that in Birmingham Black and Asian women are 5x more likely to die than White women from childbirth related complications. This exact issue is the same for the U.S. It is mind boggling to me that as countries that have access to amazing medical advances, that this is still an issue due to outdated medical practices.

Next, the Black Heritage Walk tour with Marcia was an absolute delight. I pride myself on learning a lot about Black History regardless of the country and she taught me a lot that is hidden purposefully. I was completely unaware of how deep and dark the TransAtlantic Slave Trade was for Birmingham. The Lloyd bank near Jamaya, the British-Jamaican restaurant we had, which still is used today, was responsible for funding African people to be used as stock and slaves is abhorrent. Young African women were seen as a perfect candidates over older men and women to breed every few years. While the older generation of men and women, were put at the bottom of the ship. This meant that the younger generation was on the higher levels and their waste would seep down to cause the older people to die faster. Marcia told us that the Englishmen that took the Africans would do this on purpose because they would get paid, if they were dead instead of alive. When I heard this, I felt anger and sick to my stomach. I always knew that the history was dark and twisted; however, this was the furthest thing from what I expected. Marcia’s booklet that she made also included a lot of the U.S. history mentioning Ida B. Wells, lynching, and Malcom X. I learned about Ida based on my own readings than school, but many of my classmates did not. I was bot surprised in the least based on how Black history has continued to be erased from the curriculum and the white washing. I will say this, I appreciated that Marcia made it very clear that Africans were not the only one to suffer. She made it her mission to emphasize and repeat that White women and children plus Irish suffered too. It was one of the first countries that the British colonized and forced into slavery.

These two lessons were my favorite in terms of two things I am passionate about: Black history and the maternal mortality rate of Black women. Both subjects are so underrepresented in education and in the media. It’s probably the main reason why I am so passionate about learning and making sure that it is accurate. I am contemplating if I want to become a labor and delivery nurse because I want to help reduce the percentage of women dying in America. I actually hope to focus on getting my Masters and maybe Doctorate of Nurse Practitioner research solely dedicated to this topic.