Let’s say the quiet part loud: We’re too comfortable with mothers dying.
I’m not just talking about the regular headlines of Black and other women who lose their lives trying to bring new life into the world. (Or the untold number of mothers who had near-death experiences, like me.) I’m also talking about the mothers we expect and encourage to die to themselves to meet the unrealistic, impossible standards of “good motherhood.”
The near-death experience I had giving birth to my oldest child forced me to confront a hard truth: our systems are often more comfortable with Black women’s sacrifice and death than with our healing. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
I am honored to partner with The Black Girl Health Collective to host Free Black Motherhood, Part I on Tuesday, March 3, from 6 to 8 PM ET.
Free Black Motherhood (FMB) is the journey—coined by me, motherhood scholar, award-winning storyteller, and coach Ambreia Meadows-Fernandez—that encourages Black mothers to prioritize the same freedom for themselves that they want for their children.
This session introduces my living, developing framework.
As we gather, we will explore the historical, cultural, and theoretical narratives that shape Black motherhood and examine the expectations placed on us through racism and patriarchy. We’ll connect through guided dialogue and reflection and explore what we hold that no longer serves us as we reclaim motherhood on our own terms.
This is not a lecture—though you will hopefully learn a lil somethin’. It is a space for truth-telling, connection, reimagining, and asking ourselves, “How would I mother if I knew I was free (to create your experience without rules or limitations.”