labor room

The “Creative Labor” room with the IV drips has the most whimsy, and yet it was possibly the most demoralizing as a writer — because the implication is, as anyone with a social media profile, you’re chasing the ability to degrade yourself for your work.

Many women opted to give birth at Astria Toppenish because of its reputation for respecting patients’ wishes and for cultural sensitivity — including a labor room for Native American women that faces east, an ancestral practice, and permission for as many family friends and “aunties” in the delivery room as the mother wanted.

“Community-competent and culturally and structurally competent doulas can help make the labor room safer for a birthing woman,” says Arline Geronimus, a research professor at the University of Michigan Population Studies Center, whose work has demonstrated the health burden of racial discrimination on Black mothers.

“When I walked into the labor room, a nurse was asking her questions as she filled out her chart,” he wrote.

In the labor room one day this month, a lone woman groaned and sighed.