This last episode of American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is about the best practices for achieving healthy pregnancies and births, and that involves working together.

We spoke to Dr. Saraswathi Vedam with The Birth Place Lab, a division of the University of British Columbia. This lab conducts research and helps provide equitable access to reproductive care. As stated on their website, the lab focuses on four sections of reproductive care: person-centered measurement of equity, quality, and safety; (2) designing and implementing accountability tools and systems; (3) improving health professional education on anti-oppression, anti-racism, and cultural safety; and (4) expanding representation in the perinatal research and clinical workforce.

We also spoke to Rosanna Davis, the President of CAL Midwives. CAL Midwives is an association of licensed midwives who provide reproductive care to patients and fight for reproductive justice in the state of California.

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American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is co-executive produced and hosted by Erika Washington, powered by Make It Work Nevada. The podcast is co-executive produced, written, and edited by Carrie Kaufman of Overthinking Media LLC. Music by Wil Black of Black Gypsy Music, with The Flobots. Artwork by Brent Holmes.

Ashlee Hernanz Alvarez was 18 when she had her first daughter, Mimi. She was on Medicaid, and went to the only public hospital in Southern Nevada. She was not treated well. The labor and delivery nurses were understaffed, her doctor was not around, and when a fill-in doctor walked in, he treated her as if she was disturbing his night. Ashlee describes the birth as "savage." For her second birth four years later, Ashlee turned to a midwife. Her experience was far better. She got to watch comedy when her labor started, so she would be distracted by laughter. She got to use her oils and her birthing ball. And she caught her baby herself, as the midwife was cupping her hands as a back-up.

These choices are not ideal for everyone, but birthing at home used to be the norm. Until professional medicine took over. We talk to Ashlee, her midwife, Jollina Simpson, and sociologist Alicia Suarez about the history of home birth, and why and how it's making a comeback.

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American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is co-executive produced and hosted by Erika Washington, powered by Make It Work Nevada. The podcast is co-executive produced, written, and edited by Carrie Kaufman of Overthinking Media LLC. Music by Wil Black of Black Gypsy Music, with The Flobots. Artwork by Brent Holmes.

Three women tell the stories of their traumatic experiences giving birth.

Amy Courts Koopman wanted a natural birth, despite a family history of pregnancy complications. She was in good health, but the pregnancy was tricky. Her birthing in-hospital midwife didn't read the notes in her chart. She was at one of the premiere hospitals in the U.S.

Brenda Zamora got pregnant at 18 with no insurance and working two jobs. She knew her diabetes was a complication to her pregnancy, but the high-risk clinic didn't flag anything. She gave birth at 30 weeks. Her daughter was born with a litany of issues, and would face multiple surgeries.

Erika Washington was giving birth to her second child. She went to the hospital and told the doctor to call her regular OB. They didn't. Instead they disbelieved she was in labor and sent her home with Ambien. She gave birth delirious and, as a 23-year-old Black woman on Medicaid, was accused of taking drugs and assumed to have no prenatal care.

These stories are told as one, with no narration. Might wanna grab your Kleenex.

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American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is co-executive produced and hosted by Erika Washington, powered by Make It Work Nevada. The podcast is co-executive produced, written, and edited by Carrie Kaufman of Overthinking Media LLC. Music by Wil Black of Black Gypsy Music, with The Flobots. Artwork by Brent Holmes.

Three women tell the stories of their traumatic experiences giving birth.

Amy Courts Koopman wanted a natural birth, despite a family history of pregnancy complications. She was in good health, but the pregnancy was tricky. Her birthing in-hospital midwife didn't read the notes in her chart. She was at one of the premiere hospitals in the U.S.

Brenda Zamora got pregnant at 18 with no insurance and working two jobs. She knew her diabetes was a complication to her pregnancy, but the high-risk clinic didn't flag anything. She gave birth at 30 weeks. Her daughter was born with a litany of issues, and would face multiple surgeries.

Erika Washington was giving birth to her second child. She went to the hospital and told the doctor to call her regular OB. They didn't. Instead they disbelieved she was in labor and sent her home with Ambien. She gave birth delirious and, as a 23-year-old Black woman on Medicaid, was accused of taking drugs and assumed to have no prenatal care.

These stories are told as one, with no narration. Might wanna grab your Kleenex.

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American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is co-executive produced and hosted by Erika Washington, powered by Make It Work Nevada. The podcast is co-executive produced, written, and edited by Carrie Kaufman of Overthinking Media LLC. Music by Wil Black of Black Gypsy Music, with The Flobots. Artwork by Brent Holmes.

Personhood. It's a concept pushed by anti-abortion activists that says fetuses are people, who deserve rights - often at the expense of the pregnant woman. We look at how pregnant people are criminalized, and often serve time in prison while pregnant, because of this misguided philosophy.

The U.S. has a dark history of "Master Race" thinking - which the Nazis studied and learned from. In this episode, we look at eugenics, forced sterilization and supremacy.

In 1961, 44-year-old Fannie Lou Hamer went to Sunflower County Hospital in Mississippi to have a minor tumor removed. Instead, the doctor gave her a "Mississippi Appendectomy." In other words, they sterilized her. Without her knowledge or consent. A year later, Hamer attended her first Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee meeting, launching her civil and voting rights activist career. She has said her forced sterilization was the catalyst for her activism.

Hamer wasn't the only Black or Brown woman who faced forced sterilization in early and mid-20th century America. It was actually quite common, and purposefully put forward by many of the elite in the U.S. through the theory of Eugenics - or race supremacy - which the Nazis actually copied to formulate their own theories.

In this episode of American Dreams: Reproductive Justice, we look at how white America has tried to control women's bodies - both by keeping "undesirables" from getting pregnant, and keeping "desirable" pregnant women from having abortions.

Sociologist Alicia Suarez notes that anti-abortion sentiment was coopted by the religious right in the 1980s, but was actually propagated by early medical leaders who wanted to keep WASP women controlled by saddling them with children, and non-WASP women controlled by taking away their ability to procreate.

One of the ways the state of California forced sterilization on its residents was through the Sonoma County Children's home, where "deviants" were sent for punishment - for being poor, for not speaking English, for already having too many kids, for being a teenager raped by her father - and given a choice: stay imprisoned or get sterilized.

We talk to journalist Phil Barber about his stunning investigative piece in The Press Democrat in 2021. And with Alexandra Minna Stern and Natalie Lira, who help put our history in context. Hint: It doesn't reflect well on us.

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American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is co-executive produced and hosted by Erika Washington, powered by Make It Work Nevada. The podcast is co-executive produced, written, and edited by Carrie Kaufman of Overthinking Media LLC. Music by Wil Black of Black Gypsy Music, with The Flobots. Artwork by Brent Holmes.

Reproductive Justice was an idea birthed in 1994, by 12 Black women who felt unseen by the white establishment. We talked to two of those women, as well as women working in the Reproductive Justice space now about what RJ is and how it affects real people.

In 1994, 12 women walked into a hotel room in Chicago. They came out with a blueprint for what would become the Reproductive Justice movement.

The Mothers of Reproductive Justice - as they are known now - were the only Black women at a conference on universal health care reform held by feminist groups. The meeting took place after a presentation by someone from the Clinton Administration on their universal health care plan. The plan didn't include any coverage of reproductive health.

As Founder Toni Bond told us, "It was as if women didn't exist."

We talk to two of those 12 women - Dr. Bond and Loretta Ross. And we talk to women working in the Reproductive Justice space now about what RJ is, what needs to be in place for it to work, and how the concept of Reproductive Justice touches every aspect of our society.

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American Dreams: Reproductive Justice is co-executive produced and hosted by Erika Washington, powered by Make It Work Nevada. The podcast is co-executive produced, written, and edited by Carrie Kaufman of Overthinking Media LLC. Music by Wil Black of Black Gypsy Music. Artwork by Brent Holmes.

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In our next episode, we will set our bearings by looking at the history of reproductive INjustice in the U.S.