On Wednesday, Nov. 12, the Hopkins Common Question hosted a panel discussion on maternal health in Ghana. The panel included a mix of students and professionals who went on a trip to Ghana at the end of their “Experiential Research Lab: Transnational Birthing Justice — Ghana” class.
The panel included three professionals: lecturer Lisa E. Wright, professor Tanay Lynn Harris and therapist Amber Gillian. The panel also included six Hopkins students: Alisha Mason, Perla Perez, Harmony Madu, Michelle Adutwum and Erica Spicer. Bersu Mulugeta, a student who did not go on the trip, served as the moderator.
Wright began the event with opening statements. She explained that she was upset in school because there was not enough “conversation about Black bodies in America.” In college, she majored in English and minored in African and African American studies, but it wasn’t until she studied abroad in Egypt and Gambia that she realized how much she still didn’t know. By being in those spaces, the stories finally came to life.
Mulugeta began by asking a question to Wright and Harris about the establishment of the class.
In the process of developing the course, Wright was informed that she needed another faculty member for approval. Wright talked about how she needed to work with someone who was also community-oriented. She chose Harris, the director and co-founder of the Bloom Collective, a perinatal center.
Harris talked about reaching undergraduate students before they go to medical school. She explained that the class needs to be part of a longer process of improving American medical practices.
Why did you as a student choose to take this course? Why did you think it was important to learn about global health first hand?
The student panelists expressed their desire to learn about medical systems outside the United States. Madu explained that she learned the root cause of Black maternal mortality in the U.S. is not biological.
“It’s a Western problem that Black women are dying,” Madu said.
Spicer said she has taken at least four classes with Wright during her time at Hopkins. She was drawn to this class because it gave her the opportunity to grow knowledge and gain experience. She also wanted the opportunity to learn about maternal health as a form of social justice.
What unique maternal health aspects did you notice while you were in Ghana?
Throughout the panel discussion, the panelists emphasized the sense of community that exists in maternity homes, supportive housing programs, clinics and hospitals. Perez explained that at one maternity home, the women pray with one of the midwives before their appointments.
“They allow the women to just gather in community,” said Perez. “I think that’s such an overlooked aspect of medicine. Connecting with people is so important. And I feel like, especially in America, we forget the value of just talking with people.”
Mason explained that midwives are highly respected in Ghana. When there is an important medical decision being made, doctors will often consult midwives. Mason added that this practice contrasts with the American model of maternal health, which often pushed midwives out of the process by excluding them from medical planning.
For Gillian: Since your focus is on perinatal mental health, what experiences from Ghana are you planning to implement in your maternal health work?
Gillian explained that the American medical model of maternal health often focuses on what the mother is doing wrong. She emphasized doctors’ focus on pregnant women’s diets. She said that a system of criticism is counterproductive and wanted to see what maternal healthcare looked like elsewhere. She was struck by the compassion of the medical staff.
“The nurses, the mid-wives – they spoke from their hearts,” Gillian said. “The patients were women in the mid-wives’ community that they loved and cared for.”
Gillian said she believes there needs to be a shift to focus on caring for moms, implemented through a community approach where small medical communities value personal relationships. She hopes to work toward that herself and explained her excitement that the young people on the trip have the knowledge and power to change the system as they enter the medical field.
For the students: How did the different writing assignments throughout the trip help you engage with all you learned and saw in Ghana? The title of this event is “Mbongi: A Community Conversation on Maternal Health in Ghana,” will you explain what a mbongi is?
Harris described the mbongi in the African cultural context, which acts as a learning space through discussion.
“It is a traditional African framework that embodies both physical and intellectual community space. It functions as a common shelter for cause dialog, problem solving, cultural preservation,” Harris read. “Everyone has the right to speak, but also the responsibility to speak with authority and clarity.”
In the context of the trip, mbongis were the conversations that students had after their hospital or clinic visits. They allowed for reflection after long days that provided a lot of information and were also often emotionally charged.
Wright emphasized the intensity of the trip, which included three cities in 14 days, and the intensity of the workload. There were mbongi writing assignments due every day, and students often worked on them at the hotel. After they lost internet one night, the professors decided the mbongi writing assignments would be due every other day.
How do you all imagine that writing can become a tool to advocate for mothers and deconstruct oppressive systems?
Adutwum explained that everyone on the trip was given a journal, which gave them a space to record their experiences and their own thoughts.
Perez recalled how when the students met Amber in one of their classes, she said that medicine demands the best of medical workers. Perez explained that to meet that standard, people in medicine need to continue to better themselves, which can be facilitated by writing.
“Writing allows you a moment to look deep into yourself, find what’s conflicting within you, what’s missing, what makes you, what gives you joy,” Perez said. “With the acknowledgement that we can improve ourselves, we can show up for people in a better way.”
What was your most memorable moment from the trip?
Spicer said her most memorable moment was at a site visit at the end of the trip. Dr. Wright asked a nurse why Black women are dying in the U.S. but surviving in Ghana. The nurse replied that they “over-care” and “don’t wait.” Spicer said this simple statement was deeply emotional for her.
“It should not be the case anywhere in the world that we’re not caring enough to prevent women from dying,” Spicer said. “Why are we living in a world where we’re doing the bare minimum?”
Mason, Perez and Madu said one of their favorite memories was visiting a slave river, also called the “Last Bath.” The group learned that almost 70 percent of enslaved people left the Americas through Ghana. Many took their last bath in the river they visited.
“The moment I stepped into that river, I had this realization that my entire ancestry just came full circle,” Perez said. “I felt so honored that it was me out of everyone in my family.”
Maalson Nyonna, an attendee, asked: Racism in the USA plays such a huge factor in Black maternal health, how were things different in Ghana as a predominantly Black Country?
The students and professionals on the trip all talked about the way they were treated since they were American and affiliated with Hopkins. Madu explained that the group was given a special shoutout at the Ghanaian parliament even though students from the University of Ghana were also there.
Madu also explained that there were instances when she felt medical professionals were sacrificing their own experience and that of their patients to make guests from the West more comfortable. Wright added that the group learned to make decisions and set their own boundaries after recognizing their privilege.
“We recognized that Johns Hopkins was taking us into places where we shouldn’t be and we didn’t want to be,” Wright said.
Wright connected the group’s understanding of American privilege to maternal health by talking about the delivery spaces of some clinics, which included only chairs. While more Black women and children survive childbirth because they aren’t facing structural racism, the experience can be uncomfortable because of a lack of resources due to colonial history.
The event concluded with West African food and a video compilation. The video included clips from healthcare experts in Ghana. The experts shared their experiences and advice for future medical professionals.
In an interview with The News-Letter, freshman Anishka Duvvuri explained that she learned about the event because she is taking Reintroduction to Writing: Maternal Health Crisis with Dr. Wright. She felt particularly inspired by the student panelists.
“I knew just coming here, I would gain an understanding of maternal healthcare from her students,” she said. “I actually know them because Dr. Wright talks about them and shows us their essays. They’re honestly people who I aspire to be like.”
