00:00My OB-GYN had stepped out of the room for a moment, and my husband noticed that I was bleeding profusely.
00:06And he kind of summons to my mom, who was also a nurse at the time, and she's like, that doesn't look normal.
00:12So both my mom and my husband went to get the doctor.
00:15I was literally bleeding out at this point, had to go under emergency surgery,
00:20which was, of course, super scary because you make a birthing plan and you think you know what's supposed to happen.
00:24And then when the unknown happens or that rare situation happens, it's very off-putting.
00:31And, of course, it's scary.
00:33So when my doctor finally figured out what happened, it turned out that I had an internal vaginal wall tear,
00:40and I had to get 27 stitches in order to stop the bleeding and to pretty much be mended together again.
00:47So after that, I realized had my husband and my mom in that moment not been attentive
00:53and not went to call for the doctor, I would have been borderline transfusion
00:58or having to stay in the hospital for a longer amount of time.
01:01I didn't spend the first day with my baby because I was in recovery after surgery.
01:05So in that moment, because I could not advocate for myself,
01:09it really let me know the importance of having a spouse or a family member who was able to advocate for me.
01:15Fast forward after baby number two and number three, I had baby number four at home with a midwife.
01:23And that was a really great environment because it was at home.
01:26It felt very natural.
01:27I had gotten over the trauma of the first baby because clearly I had two and three and four.
01:32So proud of you, by the way.
01:34If I was that traumatized, Jackson would be an only child, you know.
01:38But I went back again and again and again.
01:40So after my fourth son, I then found myself in another situation where I had to, again, have someone advocate for me.
01:47I had a severe headache postpartum, nine days, thinking it was just fatigue, I'm tired, I had a baby, I'm up nursing at night.
01:56Then this headache wouldn't go away.
01:57My midwife was like, FaceTime me, let me see your hands and your feet.
02:00They were swollen.
02:02Check your blood pressure.
02:03My blood pressure was 202 over like 197.
02:07It was ridiculous.
02:08So I was borderline seizure, had to be rushed to the ER.
02:12In the ER, my husband was then, again, rallying behind me to make sure that the hospital staff was attentive because far too many times black women end up in situations where they write off a headache and just say, you're just tired.
02:24Oh, that's normal.
02:25That comes with the territory.
02:26And it let me know in that moment that these things are not normal.
02:30And I'm happy for spaces like this.
02:32So thank you to Pfizer and to you ladies for giving us a space to have these conversations.
02:56You
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