October 2022

Anti-Bullying Month | Dometic Violence Awareness Month | Fair Trade Month | National Breast Cancer Awareness Month | Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) Awareness Month

Uplifting Black Breastfeeding with Community Resources, Culturally Concordant Care, Legal Aid, and Hospital Policy

In this Collaboratory, our panel of experts will propose solutions to address breastfeeding disparities, harnessing the support of community resources and structural change. Join us to better understand what can be done differently, what policies need to be implemented, and what resources can be utilized in order to dismantle the Black breastfeeding disparity.

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Don't forget to register to vote in time for the midterms

California's voter registration deadline is Monday, October 24.

Calling all LGBTQ+ Parents-To-Be

A student journalist is interested in speaking with LGBTQ+ people who are currently pregnant for an audio story about health disparities.

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Meet LaKia Williams

LaKia Williams joins PTBi as our new Content Creator and Social Media Manager. LaKia is a reproductive justice organizer and digital creator with experience in mutual aid organizing through a sexual health mutual aid program she created in college that provides free emergency contraception, condoms, and pregnancy tests to students and local community members. As the former digital organizer of SisterSong, LaKia is experienced in combining reproductive justice organizing with digital and social media to inform and galvanize people to action through short-form videos and informational images. LaKia is also on the board of directors for ACCESS Reproductive Justice, California’s only state-wide abortion fund, and the host and producer of the Black Feminist Rants podcast.

New NICU Toolkits

The MILK Research Lab has created two new interactive community-centered toolkits for the NICU setting. The first, NICU Toolkit for Black Families, was created to provide Black families with resources to better guide and support their NICU experiences. The second, NICU Toolkit for Hospitals & Birth Centers to Better Support Black Families, was developed to provide hospitals and birth centers with recommendations to promote health equity and justice to better serve Black communities.

Community Event for Black and Pacific Islander Families

In partnership with Breast Friends, the Abundant Birth Project (ABP) is hosting a community recruitment event. Join ABP on Sunday, October 23 at Kennedy Park (1333 Decoto Rd, Union City) from 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm to celebrate Black and Pacific Islander pregnancy and family and learn more about the ABP Study! There will be food, a maternity photographer, prenatal massage, belly painting and more.

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Voices for Birth Justice

Loren Newman wanted to be an "awesome" graphic designer. Then, she joined the staff at PTBi. "The more I got into it, I learned that my design work really is important in shaping Black and Brown birth outcomes," she said in her Voices for Birth Justice feature.

Learn more about the role of graphic design in our work.

What We're Reading

Seven million women across the country live in areas with limited or no access to maternity healthcare services. Read "Maternity care ‘deserts’ on the rise across the U.S., report finds" from STAT News.

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