Elaine Welteroth: "What's Broken About Birth in America, is That it's Treated as a Business" | THR Video - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Elaine Welteroth speaks at the second annual Social Impact Summit, hosted by the Social Impact Fund and The Hollywood Reporter. She breaks down how America is one of the deadliest places to give birth in all the high-income countries, how we have normalized traumatic birth and what people can do to fix the problem and save lives.

Transcript

00:00All right, here we go. Hello, everyone. Okay, how good does it feel to be surrounded by

00:10like-minded community in a moment like this? I just want to take a moment to thank everyone

00:16for being here. I don't know about you, but I needed this. All right, so let's kick off.

00:22How many parents do we have in the room? You guys deserve a round of applause. We are doing

00:28the hardest job in the world, especially right now. All right, now parents or not, how many of you

00:33by a show of hands knew that America is the deadliest place to give birth in all of the high

00:41income countries across the world? You guys are a smart group. Most people don't. And it's not just

00:50by a little. It's actually by 10 times. I know I'm jumping right in with the depressing stats,

00:56but they gave me five minutes, so we're diving right into the deep end. Come with me.

01:01Now, how many of you all knew that midwives could actually avert 80% of maternal deaths?

01:08Let that sink in. 80%. Now, midwifery care is actually the default birth care model in every

01:17other high-income country across the world. But here in America, most insurances do not cover it.

01:25Now, it's not a coincidence that most of us didn't know this. It's actually by design.

01:32Before I became a mother, I'd heard whispers of the maternal mortality crisis. And as a journalist,

01:39I'd read the data. 50% of mothers describe their births as traumatic. Black women are dying at three

01:46to four times the rates of white women during and after childbirth. But somehow, the conversation

01:53always stops at the problem. Instead of rallying resources around solutions, known solutions like

02:02midwifery care. Much like the women's health issues broadly, maternal health has been falsely framed as

02:11a fringe issue. Something that's left to somebody else to fix. Despite the fact that everyone on the

02:19planet and everyone in this room came from a woman's womb, right or wrong, it's a crisis that's painted

02:27in statistics that are too heavy for some, too sterile for others to actually feel until it becomes

02:37your issue. When I became pregnant, I thought, how hard could this be? I did what most Americans do.

02:44I looked for a good OB. And even as someone who had access to the best, I dated eight different

02:51doctors. And yes, I call it dated because you need to know who's going to be there during your most

02:56vulnerable experience in your life. Except the problem is I was having terrible experience after

03:01terrible experience, including one who told me that I had exceeded her two to three question max

03:06before she escorted me out of her office. And that's the moment when I realized just how broken the

03:15system is. Now, what's broken about birth in America is that it's treated like a business.

03:23One that prioritizes profits over people. It thrives on our lack of knowledge and it incentivizes

03:31unnecessary medical intervention. And it leaves families and women feeling powerless over the

03:39very thing our bodies were built to do. Meanwhile, midwives and community-based providers and birth

03:48workers who save lives are underfunded and ignored. Thankfully, in my third trimester, y'all,

03:57I was finally introduced to the midwifery model of care. A model that centers humanity,

04:05dignity, education, and choice. And it changed everything. It actually changed my life. It gave me

04:14a safe, sacred, and transformative birth experience. And I got to tell you of all of my career accomplishments

04:22and all the titles that I have held. Pushing out a nine-pound baby in my home unmedicated was the

04:32most badass thing I've ever done and the most empowered I have ever felt in my life.

04:41Thank you. Add that to my resume.

04:43But then came the grief. Why did I only find out about this care through chance? Through a whisper

04:52network? Why isn't this the norm for low-risk pregnancies? Especially when midwifery has been

05:00proven to be safe, more affordable in some cases, and a lot of times much more humane.

05:07And most of all, why, with all of our medical advances and our access to technology breakthroughs,

05:14are so many women still dying in childbirth in one of the richest countries in the world?

05:21When 80% of maternal deaths are preventable. Make it make sense, y'all. The math isn't math-y.

05:30So I put on my journalist hat and I dug deeper to find answers. And one thing became clear.

05:37This is not just a public health crisis. This is a storytelling crisis. We have normalized traumatic

05:45birth. We have stigmatized midwifery and care models that are saving us. We've let profit-driven

05:54systems dictate outcomes that should be rooted in dignity. And we've let the story stop at the fear

06:02instead of the fix. So I decided to start somewhere with what I had. On my birthday in December 2023,

06:13I launched an Instagram fundraiser just hoping to cover the cost of one family in my neighborhood.

06:19And in 16 hours, we raised enough to fund two families' births. From that small seed,

06:27Birth Fund was born. With my background in storytelling and brand building, I knew we could

06:33scale this. Because one thing is for sure, there is nothing a pissed-off mama cannot do, okay?

06:40Now, Birth Fund is one year old, by the way. We just celebrated our first year, first anniversary.

06:49And now, Birth Fund is a nonprofit organization investing in midwifery care for families all

06:55across the country who couldn't otherwise afford it. We're working to mainstream midwifery through

07:01storytelling in order to help make this gold standard care accessible, covered, and celebrated.

07:06But I couldn't have built this alone. I called on my network, public figures, executives, journalists,

07:14moms like Serena Williams, may have heard of her, Carly Kloss, Chrissy Teigen, and yes, dads like John

07:24Legend, who's here today, and Alexis Ohanian, who joined our very first funding circle to help solve

07:30this crisis one family at a time. Then came the brands, SoFi, Road, Mac, Pampers, BabyList,

07:39and so many more. And then we have institutional support from the Gates Foundation and Pivotal Ventures.

07:46Shout out to Allison Felix, who you'll hear from in a second, who leveraged her fund to invest in this

07:52work. And one year later, we've raised over $3 million to support families and midwives all across

07:59the country. Thank you. And we're just getting started. Together, we are rewriting the story one

08:09birth at a time, one family at a time, because a mother's life should never be the cost of bringing

08:17new life into this world. Thank you so much.

Elaine Welteroth: "What's Broken About Birth in America, is That it's Treated as a Business" | THR Video

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