Improving Maternal Health Outcomes
For a bit there, life was moving slowly — the pregnancy, the recovery, getting established with the French farmhouse, business, communication, initiating the prairie cottage build, etc. Now everything is off the ground and running in one stage or another, and life is a tangle of constant designing, breastfeeding, collaborating, editing, laundry, untangling charging cables, planning, setting alerts, and troubleshooting.
No matter the pace, I’m so thankful to do everything with my children by my side — or, to be more precise, on my lap (West) and at my breast (Léa Lou).
What a privilege it is to have reached this point. What a privilege it has always been, whereas so many women are denied meaningful support and quality care from the onset of their pregnancies. The impacts of such treatment and lack of care are immeasurable.
There’s currently a maternal health crisis in America, and it disproportionately impacts Black and Indigenous women.
I believe the country needs work towards improving maternal health outcomes, implement education on bias, racism, and discrimination for maternity care providers, and invest in equitable care and community-based initiatives to reduce levels of and exposure to climate change-related risks for moms and babies.
If you are looking to learn more and/or become an advocate for birthing justice, you can do so easily. Visit Every Mother Counts, or click here for further details on the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act of 2021.
In this post, I’m wearing work by Native Fashion Artist Jamie Okuma.
Thoughts on “Influence” and This Week's Events
For better and worse, what happens online matters. This week’s foul events in Washington D.C. are clear proof of this. There is immense influence online, and it manifests in endless ways.
In the context of the Cottage, influence is what sustains my small business and puts a roof over my family’s head.
In the non-profit world, influence has enabled a myriad of organizations to advance their efforts through means that weren’t available a decade ago.
In the sphere of community organizing, influence is arguably what mobilized the greatest voter turnout in an election in modern American history.
But, in this digitized political era in which we now find ourselves, online influence can fuel the myth of white supremacy, the rapid spread of baseless and even disproven conspiracy theories, dangerous disinformation, and the recent abhorrent rise in hate crimes.
“Racial history does not repeat harmlessly. Instead, its devastation multiplies when generation after generation repeat the same failed strategies and solutions and ideologies, rather than burying past failures in the caskets of past generations.” - Ibram X. Kendi
Pictured: Be Antiracist: A Journal for Awareness, Reflection and Action Book by Ibram X. Kendi
If your elected officials did not represent your values at the Capitol this week, you can tell them so. And remember that they work for your community, and YOU have the power to vote them out. Organizing and mobilizing is a year-round effort, not just something reserved for election years. (Click here to find your representative.)
Read: “The Whole Story in a Single Photo: An image from the Capitol captures the distance between who we purport to be and who we have actually been” by Clint Smith
Read: “White Entitlement on Parade” by Jamil Smith
A note to readers who think I should just “stick to home decor”:
The goal of this blog and my work is to help people feel comfortable, confident and content in their small spaces. But here in America, many Black citizens can’t even feel safe in and around their own homes due the extreme and unrelenting dangers and threats that accompany racism. (One of the most widely known examples of this is, of course, the deeply disturbing murder of Breonna Taylor.)
A note to readers who think the climate crisis and systemic racism are unrelated, and just want me to “stay in my lane” by simply sharing tips regarding what I’ve learned regarding lower waste living, remember this:
”… our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis. If we don’t work on both, we will succeed at neither.” - Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
A note to readers who are white:
It is our daily responsibility to dismantle the myth of white supremacy and the systems of oppression that continue to burden and even destroy the lives of those in marginalized communities.
While We Wait
While we’ve been awaiting election results, America officially left the The Paris Climate Agreement. (Click here to read about 72 ways the current president has made America dirtier and the planet warmer.) Considering all that teeters on the brink— particularly for disenfranchised communities and the health of our one mighty, shared home— more than 72 million folks in the United States (my family included) are holding our breath for the election to be fairly and lawfully called for the candidate who has a viable plan for a clean energy revolution and environmental justice.*
I’ve been actively fighting the urge to continually refresh the NPR app, and have instead kept my hands busy with work (a foggy version of it, at least). I’ve also thrown myself into chores and family activities that leave little to no opportunity to obsessively check my phone. I’ve found that having control over something— even something insignificant like setting up a different workspace every day— has temporarily kept me from focusing solely on that which is beyond my control.
I believe that this has helped me preserve some energy to check in with loved ones, collaborate further with The RightWay Foundation, entertain and educate our 4 year old (alongside Adam, who is our son’s primary caregiver during the day), keep our small business quietly humming, and hopefully nurture the little life growing inside me.
As we nervously putter through the days, particular articles and comments concerning the environment, social + environmental justice, and what’s at stake keep resurfacing in my mind. I’m sharing some of those words below.
“The climate crisis is a leadership crisis. For far too long, too many leaders have focused on profit, power, and prestige; and many of those committed to change have been ineffective. The climate crisis is the result of social, political, and economic systems that are wildly skewed to benefit those who already have so much. To transform society this decade— the clear task science has set before us— we need transformational leadership. We need feminine and feminist climate leadership, which is wide open to people of any gender. This is where possibility lives— possibility that we can turn away from the brink and move toward a life-giving future for all.” - All We Can Save, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katherine K. Wilkinson
“Environmental justice embraces the principle that all people and communities are entitled to equal protection of environmental, housing, economic, transportation, energy, and civil rights — including voting rights.” - Robert Bullard to Rolling Stone (From the article “Another Reason We Can’t Breathe”)
“… administration after administration has failed to sufficiently act on or even acknowledge environmental racism, and the toll it’s taken has been undeniable. Meeting the challenges of this moment — with the intersection of so many crises coming to a boiling point — will require thinking beyond the outdated notions of what qualifies as a climate policy.” - Jamil Smith
“To meet the challenges of the climate crisis and preserve all that we hold dear; to retain democracy, social justice, human rights, and other hard-won freedoms in the future, we must part ways with that which threatens to destroy them. Now is the time to make profound shifts in how we live, work, and relate to each other.” - The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis
“So, to white people who care about maintaining a habitable planet, I need you to become actively anti-racist. I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis. If we don’t work on both, we will succeed at neither.” - Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
"A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few. Ignoring these cries and failing to respond to this movement is simply not an option — for peace cannot exist where justice is not served." - Rep. John Lewis
“Efforts to discourage and disenfranchise voters—in voter registration, ballot access, or counting of votes—have a catastrophic effect on our democracy and our communities.” - Fair Fight by Stacey Abrams
“Americans are deeply divided—and we’re deeply divided over why we’re deeply divided. To be antiracist is to recognize and challenge racism as the source of the racial divide. To be racist is to deny racism and frame those challenging racism as the source of the racial divide.” - Ibram X. Kendi
“Resist the urge to quit.” - Heather McGhee
“Release the need to hate, to harbor division, and the enticement of revenge. Release all bitterness. Hold only love, only peace in your heart, knowing that the battle of good to overcome evil is already won." - John Lewis
*”On the environment and climate change, [Joe] Biden wants to spend $2 trillion on an emissions-free power sector by 2035, build energy-efficient structures and vehicles, push solar and wind power, establish research agencies to develop safe nuclear power and carbon capture technologies, and more. The investment will produce two million jobs for U.S. workers, his campaign claims, and the climate plan will be partly paid by eliminating Trump's corporate tax cuts. Historically disadvantaged communities in the U.S. will receive 40 percent of these energy and infrastructure benefits.” - Scientific American
Making a Voting Plan
“To meet the challenges of the climate crisis and preserve all that we hold dear; to retain democracy, social justice, human rights, and other hard-won freedoms in the future, we must part ways with that which threatens to destroy them. Now is the time to make profound shifts in how we live, work, and relate to each other.”
- The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis
In the upcoming presidential election, I’ll be voting (early) for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
For those who think that politics has no place on a blog like mine, you’re mistaken. This blog is about home, and all the topics encompassed therein. It’s about running a small business while raising a family. It’s about community. It’s about the climate crisis and our ongoing role within it. It’s about physical and mental health. It’s about learning to be an antiracist. It’s about discovering how to live regeneratively. It’s about connecting with neighbors, as well as folks from all across the world. It’s about exploring what we can share and how we can share it. All of these topics are directly impacted by politics— now more than ever.
I believe that casting a ballot for the incumbent — or refraining from voting altogether — is a vote for an administration that prioritizes the profit, power and comfort of a select few over millions of lives, human rights, the health and future of our shared planet, and our democracy.
John Lewis wrote that: “The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democratic society.” From your local officials to the Senate to the presidency, it’s important to vote up and down the ballot in every election. But voter suppression is happening in America right now, playing out in old ways and new. With a plan, we can each fight to be sure our vote is counted. And we can advocate for the votes of disenfranchised groups to be counted, too.
We Must be Anti-Racist
The goal of this blog and my work is to help people feel comfortable, confident and content in their small spaces. But I cannot continue to talk about those things without addressing the fact that, here in America, many Black citizens can’t even feel safe in and around their own homes due the extreme and unrelenting dangers and threats that accompany racism. (A recent example of this is the murder of Breonna Taylor.)
To the members of this community who are white: It is our daily responsibility to dismantle white supremacy and the systems of oppression that continue to burden and destroy Black lives. It is our responsibility to learn how to be anti-racist by researching, listening, not centering ourselves, and addressing overt and covert white supremacy whenever it manifests in both our personal and business interactions. It is our responsibility to commit to raising anti-racist children. It is our responsibility to keep Black friends, neighbors and strangers safe from hateful, biased and baseless attacks.
And we need to VOTE for anti-racist leadership at all levels of government.
Thus far, I’ve found the following materials to be particularly helpful regarding recognizing and addressing the issues of internalized racism and white supremacy:
How To Be An Antiracist by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, PhD
Also helpful is this list of Anti-racism Resources (articles, books, podcasts, films, social media accounts, organizations, etc.) compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker, Alyssa Klein in May 2020, and brought to my attention via Brittany Packnett Cunningham.
Our local library and The Conscious Kid routinely suggest excellent children’s books by authors and/or illustrators of color that focus on children of color.
Of course our to-do list reaches far beyond reading and sharing books. Our good intentions aren’t enough. We must translate what we learn into action, and do so every single day.
“There is justice. There is injustice. There is no neutrality. No sideline. No bleachers. No exits. We are all in the human rights struggle to save humanity from human tyranny. Black people, especially, are struggling for the right to live, for the right to breathe.”
- Ibram X. Kendi