Miriam Zoila Pérez is a Cuban-American writer, activist and consultant. Pérez is the founder of Radical Doula, a blog that covers the intersections of birth activism and social justice from a doula’s perspective. You might also know her from her work at Feministing.com, where she was an Editor for four years, during which time the site was awarded the Hillman Prize for Blog Journalism. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, RH Reality Check, and The American Prospect and she is a frequent contributor to Colorlines. She has received various awards and recognitions for her work, including a 2010 Barbara Seaman Award for Activism in Women’s Health from the National Women’s Health Network. For more about her work, visit miriamzperez.com.
Data shows that transgender people are more likely to be uninsured, face discrimination in health care, be HIV positive and suffer from depression and attempted suicide.
The latest CDC data about teen pregnancy rates on the decline gets much attention while the conditions that could be improved to help all parents succeed are ignored.
The 10th anniversary of National Latino AIDS Awareness Day reminds us how far we still have to go to address race-based health disparities. But we must keep our efforts trained on the real causes of these statistics: social and economic conditions.
Often the argument is that if we try and fight the public funding battle, we might lose ground in overall access to abortion. But I think that the exact opposite is true. If we don’t fight the public funding debate, we’re going to lose altogether.
Trevor MacDonald, a trans father in Canada who has breastfed his son for over a year, was rejected by La Leche League as a volunteer leader because of his gender identity.
Recent conversations have focused on the question of whether home birth is safe. Here is why it’s the wrong question to be asking.
Myths about the Asian American community — commonly referred to as the “model minority” — often contribute to challenges in uncovering the very real health disparities that exist within the diverse populations that fall under the same statistical umbrella.
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While more and more trans people are considering pregnancy and birth, very few providers in that field are equipped to provide adequate care.
Race-based maternal health disparities are no longer a concern of the minority — they are a concern of the majority. And they should be a top priority. If Medicaid doesn’t make room for alternative, potentially life saving maternal health models, we risk endangering the health of generations to come.
There is a disturbing trend on the rise in the U.S., one that crosses into many arenas — from legislation to insurance policy to our judicial system to the way individuals interact with their medical providers. The trend? Making women responsible for healthy birth outcomes and jailing them when they don’t meet this unattainable standard.
