Letters to Soleil: Reproductive Reparations as Black Maternal Justice
I see inequity wherever it exists, call it by name, and work to eliminate it. Footnote #1 content: Shalon Irving (@shalonirvingphd), X, https://twitter.com/shalonirvingphd [https://perma.cc/ JCW9-WQAF] (last visited May 24, 2024).
Dr. Shalon MauRene Irving—the proud author of this Twitter bio— championed medical equity. Footnote #2 content: See Nina Martin & Renee Montagne, Black Mothers Keep Dying After Giving Birth. Shalon Irving’s Story Explains Why, NPR (Dec. 7, 2017, 7:51 PM), https://www.npr.org/2017/12/07/568948782/black- mothers-keep-dying-after-giving-birth-shalon-irvings-story-explains-why [https://perma.cc/VEA5-HJ3C]. The thirty-six-year-old epidemiologist dedicated herself to “understanding how structural racism, intersectionality, trauma, and violence influence health disparities over a lifetime.” Footnote #3 content: Tanjala S. Purnell, Wanda Irving, Soleil Irving, Lauren Underwood, Raegan McDonald-Mosley, Chidinma Ibe, Debra Hickman & Janice Bowie, Honoring Dr. Shalon Irving, A Champion for Health Equity, 41 HEALTH AFFS. 304, 304 (2022); accord Shalon M. Irving Health Equity Award, CTRS. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION (May 8, 2023), https://www.cdc.gov/eis/conference/awards/shalon- irving.html [https://perma.cc/DT7F-ASKZ]; Martin & Montagne, supra note 2. Shalon was an esteemed scholar, advocate, and friend. Footnote #4 content: Purnell et al., supra note 3, at 304–05. In mid-2016, Shalon learned that she would become a mother. Footnote #5 content: Martin & Montagne, supra note 2.
As Shalon’s extensive “village” prepared for her baby’s arrival, Shalon navigated the stressors of daily life. Footnote #6 content: Id. Shalon’s relationship ended, and she braced for single motherhood. Footnote #7 content: Id. (“There was the painful end to Shalon’s romance with her baby’s father and her dashed hopes of raising their child together. There were worries about money and panic attacks about the difficulties of being a black single mother in the South in the era of Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice. Shalon told everyone she was hoping for a girl.”). She grieved two brothers, both of whom passed years earlier. Footnote #8 content: Id. (“Her brother Sam III sardonically joked that the family had a ‘death gene,’ but Shalon didn’t think that was funny.”). Shalon considered Sam her “sunshine” and nicknamed her future child “Sunny” in honor of her brother. Id. Shalon struggled with career-related anxiety, weight management, and blood clots. Footnote #9 content: Id. (“In reality, Shalon’s many risk factors — including her clotting disorder, her fibroid surgery, the 36 years of wear and tear on her telomeres, her weight — boded a challenging nine months. . . . ‘If I was the doctor taking care of her, I’d be like, “Oh, this is going to be a tough one,”‘her OB/GYN friend McDonald-Mosley said.”). Shalon’s conditions and previous fibroid removal surgery eliminated her vaginal birthing options, and she scheduled a cesarean section (C-section). Footnote #10 content: Id. Still, Shalon glowed with pride throughout her pregnancy, Footnote #11 content: Purnell et al., supra note 3, at 304. delivering a healthy baby girl in January 2017. Footnote #12 content: Katie Kindelan, Woman Works to End Black Maternal Health Crisis After Daughter Dies After Giving Birth, ABC NEWS (Apr. 14, 2022, 4:09 AM), https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Wellness/woman- works-end-black-maternal-health-crisis-daughter/story?id=84024414 [https://perma.cc/6ESX-6ZU8]. Shalon named her daughter Soleil, for the sun. Footnote #13 content: Martin & Montagne, supra note 2.
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