Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Director Tonya Lewis Lee documentary highlights the healthcare inequalities that Black Women face.
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: If you're about to make a change in your life
- 0:03Speaker 1: and you feel uncomfortable, that's the best feeling you can have.
- 0:08Speaker 2: Because for the first time in your life, you'll make a.
- 0:10Speaker 1: New decision that's going to be best for you and
- 0:13Speaker 1: not what somebody told you to do. And that's when
- 0:16Speaker 1: all bets are off. Welcome to Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
- 0:20Speaker 1: I'm your host, Rashaan MacDonald. Our theme is there's no
- 0:23Speaker 1: perfect time to start following your dreams. I recognize that
- 0:26Speaker 1: we all have different definitions of success.
- 0:28Speaker 2: For you and maybe decide.
- 0:29Speaker 1: To your h it's time to stop reading other people's
- 0:32Speaker 1: success stories to start.
- 0:33Speaker 2: Living your own. Keep winning.
- 0:40Speaker 1: My guess is Tanya Lewis Lee and twenty twenty two.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Indie Wire featured Tanya on their twenty twenty two Rising
- 0:46Speaker 1: Female Filmmakers to Watch. She's a producer, film director, writer, entrepreneur,
- 0:51Speaker 1: and women's health advocate, delivering meaningful content that resonates with
- 0:55Speaker 1: marginalized communities for over twenty years on the heels of
- 0:59Speaker 1: our influential children's book. The US Department of Health partner
- 1:03Speaker 1: with Tanya as the spokesperson for their A Healthy Baby
- 1:06Speaker 1: Begins with You Infant mortality awareness campaign from two thousand
- 1:10Speaker 1: and seven to twenty thirteen. Tanya's on the show today
- 1:14Speaker 1: discuss her new documentary following the deaths of two young
- 1:17Speaker 1: women due to childbirth complications to breed families, galvanized activists,
- 1:23Speaker 1: birth workers, and physicians to reckon with one of the
- 1:26Speaker 1: most pressing American crisis today, the US maternal health crisis.
- 1:30Speaker 1: Lee co directed co produced After Shock, which examines the
- 1:34Speaker 1: US maternity mortality crisis. Please welcome to the Money Making
- 1:37Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass. The wonderful Tanya Lewis Lee.
- 1:41Speaker 2: How you doing.
- 1:42Speaker 3: I'm good, Rashan, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction,
- 1:45Speaker 3: and I'm happy to be here in conversation with you
- 1:48Speaker 3: about the film.
- 1:49Speaker 1: We know I want the reason I hopefully I did
- 1:52Speaker 1: you justice in your intro, because to do a documentary
- 1:56Speaker 1: like this, there has to be some history, has to
- 1:58Speaker 1: be a person who just didn't and have a good idea,
- 2:01Speaker 1: came across a good story and made this amazing documentary
- 2:06Speaker 1: and by at least giving this background and it'll let
- 2:10Speaker 1: them know that a lot of emotional a lot of history,
- 2:12Speaker 1: a lot of experience went into creating Aftershock. Talk tell
- 2:16Speaker 1: us about how you got involved with this project.
- 2:19Speaker 3: Yes, and like I said, I really did appreciate your
- 2:21Speaker 3: introduction because you know, it was because of my children's book,
- 2:25Speaker 3: Please Baby, Please, that the US Department of Helping Human
- 2:29Speaker 3: Services reached out to me and asked me to be
- 2:31Speaker 3: a spokesperson where their infant mortality awareness raising campaign, A
- 2:36Speaker 3: Healthy Baby Begins with You. And it was through that
- 2:39Speaker 3: campaign that I was able to travel the country and
- 2:43Speaker 3: learn first of all about infant mortality. I didn't realize
- 2:46Speaker 3: the US at the time when I first started had
- 2:48Speaker 3: an issue with into mortality in the United States. I
- 2:50Speaker 3: didn't realize that black babies, like black mothers, are dying
- 2:54Speaker 3: at three to four times the rate of white babies
- 2:56Speaker 3: in this country, and I didn't know about so I
- 3:01Speaker 3: didn't know about the disparity.
- 3:02Speaker 4: So through my travels, I.
- 3:04Speaker 3: Had the opportunity to meet and talk with lots of women.
- 3:09Speaker 3: Inevitably a woman would tell me a story about a friend,
- 3:13Speaker 3: a sister, cousin, somebody who had passed away from childbirth complications.
- 3:17Speaker 3: So it had been something that I had been thinking
- 3:19Speaker 3: about for a while because I was hearing it firsthand
- 3:22Speaker 3: from the community. And then back in twenty seventeen, twenty
- 3:27Speaker 3: eighteen of the New York Times pro Publica started reporting
- 3:31Speaker 3: on the issue of maternal mortality here in this country,
- 3:34Speaker 3: and it seemed like then was the time to really
- 3:38Speaker 3: go out there and make this film to raise the
- 3:41Speaker 3: awareness so that we can do things to bring the
- 3:43Speaker 3: make for better outcomes.
- 3:45Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that, making the fan, producing it,
- 3:47Speaker 1: getting the concept in place, because this is a personal
- 3:50Speaker 1: project from a standpoint, is about African Americans. It's about
- 3:54Speaker 1: them being at the high end of the mortality rate.
- 3:58Speaker 2: It's also some history. It tells you.
- 4:01Speaker 1: This is a documentary and informs it educates you, especially
- 4:04Speaker 1: in the end. How would you when you presented this
- 4:06Speaker 1: project and start producing it. Were there any pushback or
- 4:11Speaker 1: people didn't understand exactly the message you was trying to
- 4:13Speaker 1: deliver with aftershock?
- 4:16Speaker 4: You know, it's interesting.
- 4:17Speaker 3: I do think that when we first started working on
- 4:21Speaker 3: the film, not so much pushback, but I think that
- 4:25Speaker 3: people did like, what is this really about?
- 4:28Speaker 4: How are you really going to tell the story?
- 4:30Speaker 3: Because it is such a huge systemic issue, And I
- 4:34Speaker 3: think initially some people thought, well, it's about black women's health,
- 4:38Speaker 3: so it shouldn't cost so much.
- 4:40Speaker 4: Your budgets too high, bring it down, and we really.
- 4:43Speaker 3: Felt like the story needed to be told in a
- 4:46Speaker 3: way through people's lived experience, not as a survey film
- 4:51Speaker 3: just people talking to camera, although we do have a
- 4:53Speaker 3: couple of experts, and we felt that the film deserved
- 4:57Speaker 3: to be told the right way, and so it would
- 4:59Speaker 3: cost what it would cost to make it, and we
- 5:03Speaker 3: stuck to our guns and made the film that we
- 5:05Speaker 3: wanted to make.
- 5:06Speaker 1: Well, you know, what people don't take in perspective is
- 5:08Speaker 1: that when you're dealing with emotions, they can't be action. Okay,
- 5:12Speaker 1: it has to be captured, it has to be it
- 5:15Speaker 1: has to be authentic, it has to be there for
- 5:18Speaker 1: the moments. So sometimes hours, sometimes days are put into
- 5:22Speaker 1: perspective to gather those moments because this is an emotionally
- 5:25Speaker 1: charged documentary because it involves death. And that's which leads
- 5:31Speaker 1: to the title after shock, you know, because of the
- 5:34Speaker 1: fact that you know, you always hear this when children
- 5:37Speaker 1: die before their parents. They say, no parent wants to
- 5:40Speaker 1: bury their child. The goal is for the child to
- 5:43Speaker 1: outlive the parents. And this situation is about relationships. How
- 5:47Speaker 1: did you encounter the individual that you are featuring in
- 5:51Speaker 1: your documentary?
- 5:53Speaker 4: Yeah, it was really something else.
- 5:55Speaker 3: Shamani Gibson passed away in October twenty nineteen. In December
- 6:01Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, her mother and her mother, Shawnnie Gibson and
- 6:06Speaker 3: her partner Amari Maynard, decided to have an event that
- 6:09Speaker 3: they called Aftershock, which was essentially a celebration of Shamani's life,
- 6:14Speaker 3: but at the same time, they wanted to have a
- 6:16Speaker 3: conversation with the community, so they put out an invitation on.
- 6:21Speaker 4: Social media that we saw.
- 6:23Speaker 3: We reached out to Shannie and to Omari and asked
- 6:26Speaker 3: if we could film, and you know, it was really
- 6:29Speaker 3: wonderful that they allowed us to come in and film
- 6:32Speaker 3: because they wanted the word to get out about not
- 6:36Speaker 3: just what happened to Shamani, but about the birthing outcomes in.
- 6:40Speaker 4: The black community.
- 6:41Speaker 3: And Amari was someone who is someone who when he
- 6:46Speaker 3: hears of a father who has been left behind because
- 6:50Speaker 3: his partner has passed away from childbirth complications, he reaches
- 6:53Speaker 3: out to them and says, hey, brother, I got you.
- 6:56Speaker 4: I'm here to support you.
- 6:57Speaker 3: And he did that for Bruce mcinto when Amber Rose
- 7:01Speaker 3: Isaac passed.
- 7:02Speaker 4: Away in April of twenty twenty.
- 7:04Speaker 3: And he reached out to him just to offer support,
- 7:07Speaker 3: told him about the film, and then Bruce, you know,
- 7:11Speaker 3: joined with us and so and for the same reason
- 7:15Speaker 3: because a week after Amber passed away, Bruce had a
- 7:18Speaker 3: press conference because he wanted to be in conversation with community.
- 7:22Speaker 3: He wanted to demand accountability for Amber's death, but he
- 7:26Speaker 3: also wanted to have the conversation. And so we were
- 7:29Speaker 3: very fortunate that we were able to catch up with
- 7:33Speaker 3: Shannie Omari and Bruce so that we could tell the
- 7:36Speaker 3: story because they wanted to tell the story.
- 7:39Speaker 2: Just talking to our audience.
- 7:41Speaker 1: You know, I love talking to talented people like Tellia
- 7:44Speaker 1: Lewis Lee. You know she said, we've reached out to them.
- 7:46Speaker 1: May now they allowed us to come in. You better
- 7:49Speaker 1: have a name you can google. You better have a reputation, You.
- 7:52Speaker 2: Better have a brand.
- 7:53Speaker 1: You better have an awareness that you just don't call
- 7:55Speaker 1: somebody at a very dark emotional moment in life, say
- 7:59Speaker 1: we want to come in and videotape without a reputation
- 8:02Speaker 1: that they know you have their, you have their their
- 8:05Speaker 1: their goodwill at heart. This is the twenty twenty two
- 8:08Speaker 1: I said to the top rising filmmaker to watch by
- 8:12Speaker 1: ind Wire, and that reputation that you've developed over the
- 8:15Speaker 1: year is part of your brand allows you to get
- 8:18Speaker 1: in a door and use your name to be able
- 8:21Speaker 1: to not only push back on the money, which.
- 8:25Speaker 2: I was really taking it back. We said, well this
- 8:28Speaker 2: black women, why is it so high?
- 8:29Speaker 3: You know?
- 8:30Speaker 2: And they we get that. We get that a lot.
- 8:32Speaker 1: Because I've been in the television business for a long time.
- 8:35Speaker 2: When I was a Steve Harvey was over the WB
- 8:37Speaker 2: and the WB.
- 8:38Speaker 1: Sitcoms were cheaper produced even though it was on the
- 8:41Speaker 1: same platform as a white sitcom. So the dollar wealth
- 8:45Speaker 1: gap they talk about in the world is also entertainment too,
- 8:48Speaker 1: by the way, if y'all don't know that, and so
- 8:50Speaker 1: you have to deal with those issues and you're able
- 8:53Speaker 1: to overcome it.
- 8:53Speaker 2: Is it the relationships?
- 8:55Speaker 1: Is it being able to have the resume that you have,
- 8:58Speaker 1: the experience, be able to counter the conversation that allows
- 9:01Speaker 1: you to be successful in this really polarized entertainment business
- 9:05Speaker 1: that we call.
- 9:06Speaker 2: You know, supposed to be equally equal.
- 9:09Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that it is true.
- 9:12Speaker 3: I mean, having having a reputation, having a you know,
- 9:16Speaker 3: a track record, if you will, certainly does help. And
- 9:20Speaker 3: stacking the deck as you go, right, Dawn Porter is
- 9:24Speaker 3: also an amazing documentary filmmaker who's an executive producer on
- 9:29Speaker 3: our film Aftershock. Uh, and so having her there, you know,
- 9:34Speaker 3: you're right, Shawnnie, o'mari and Bruce were very aware of
- 9:38Speaker 3: myself and my work and so and they trusted me.
- 9:41Speaker 3: You know, we Shawnie and o'mari from Brooklyn. Uh, you know,
- 9:44Speaker 3: we are Brooklyn people.
- 9:45Speaker 4: They know my.
- 9:47Speaker 3: Husband is you know, represent the Republic of Brooklyn all
- 9:50Speaker 3: the time.
- 9:51Speaker 4: So there is that comfort.
- 9:53Speaker 3: And I'll tell you I felt a real responsibility to
- 9:57Speaker 3: make sure that we on aired uh Shamani and Amber
- 10:02Speaker 3: and represented the family in a way that is authentic
- 10:06Speaker 3: and true to the spirit of who they are.
- 10:10Speaker 1: Really interesting when I got an opportunity, when the interview
- 10:13Speaker 1: came to me, it came across my deskings we'll show
- 10:15Speaker 1: you got a interview.
- 10:15Speaker 2: I got an interviewer, and I go, Okay, what's she doing?
- 10:17Speaker 2: What's she talking about?
- 10:18Speaker 1: And then when they when they when they sent me
- 10:20Speaker 1: the log line on the documentary. I have six sisters,
- 10:24Speaker 1: okay and uh, and so I come from a family,
- 10:27Speaker 1: a big family.
- 10:28Speaker 2: Nine kids.
- 10:29Speaker 1: Both my parents are staying home with us for Inner
- 10:32Speaker 1: City and so I'm very much aware of a sudden
- 10:37Speaker 1: loss of life, so I know that. You know, sometimes
- 10:40Speaker 1: you have to be honest with your audience and let
- 10:42Speaker 1: them know that this is not just a story. To me,
- 10:45Speaker 1: it's a personal journey. The emotional loss, the sunniness, the shock,
- 10:50Speaker 1: the anger, the comfort that you don't care about, you know,
- 10:56Speaker 1: because the comfort can't change what has happened. Uh the
- 11:01Speaker 1: future that you were planning that is cut off, you know,
- 11:04Speaker 1: the plans. It's just so many emotions unless you've personally
- 11:09Speaker 1: been there. And I was personally engaged with the two
- 11:13Speaker 1: men who are prominently featured in your documentary because I
- 11:18Speaker 1: was shocked and still shocked. I still think, I still reminiss,
- 11:22Speaker 1: I still do the what ifs, and so all these
- 11:24Speaker 1: things you have to take into perspective doing this. You
- 11:28Speaker 1: have to be a level of sensitivity that this is
- 11:30Speaker 1: beyond just recording a story. This is a journey that
- 11:36Speaker 1: they guess what we will never forget. I will never
- 11:40Speaker 1: turn my back onto what IFFs. I will never forget
- 11:42Speaker 1: those moments of moments. But it's something that you, through
- 11:47Speaker 1: through brilliant hands and experience, have allowed me to take
- 11:51Speaker 1: that journey again.
- 11:52Speaker 2: And I thought I would never do that again.
- 11:54Speaker 5: Tanya, Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with
- 11:57Speaker 5: more Money Making Conversations Master Class. Welcome back to the
- 12:04Speaker 5: Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rushaan McDonald.
- 12:09Speaker 3: Well, Well, I do hope that in watching their journey
- 12:13Speaker 3: Amari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre.
- 12:16Speaker 4: That there is comfort in that because you are not alone,
- 12:19Speaker 4: and I think that there are a lot of men.
- 12:22Speaker 4: And one of the things that.
- 12:23Speaker 3: I think is really exciting to come out of the
- 12:26Speaker 3: film because of Bruce and Omari, is that black men
- 12:30Speaker 3: and men in general are talking about paternal mental health, right.
- 12:34Speaker 4: I think you know, often when a woman has a child.
- 12:37Speaker 3: We think of maternal health as just just being about
- 12:39Speaker 3: a woman, but it is about a man too, because
- 12:43Speaker 3: it still takes two to make a baby, and men
- 12:46Speaker 3: go through the process as well, and then when there's
- 12:49Speaker 3: a loss, they're the ones left behind, as in our case,
- 12:54Speaker 3: to raise the children on their own and they need
- 12:57Speaker 3: support and they have.
- 13:00Speaker 4: I've learned Bruce and Amari.
- 13:02Speaker 3: How to support one another, how to support other fathers,
- 13:05Speaker 3: and to really engage in this conversation of what does
- 13:08Speaker 3: it mean to be a man to have lost in
- 13:12Speaker 3: this way, and I think it's a really great opportunity
- 13:17Speaker 3: for us to have that conversation, get men talking more,
- 13:20Speaker 3: being more vulnerableout with their feelings with each other so
- 13:24Speaker 3: that they too can heal.
- 13:26Speaker 1: And it's important, like I said, when I look at
- 13:29Speaker 1: what you are doing and what you're presenting and we're
- 13:32Speaker 1: talking to Tanya Lewis Lee. A documentary was called Aftershock.
- 13:36Speaker 1: What I did realize is that you always hear that
- 13:38Speaker 1: term it's a miracle to have a healthy baby. When
- 13:42Speaker 1: something like this happens to you, you realize that it's
- 13:45Speaker 1: absolutely the truth.
- 13:47Speaker 2: It is a miracle to go through the birth process.
- 13:51Speaker 1: I'm talking about their mom. It's a miracle for the
- 13:54Speaker 1: baby to come health out healthy. You know, every day
- 13:57Speaker 1: after that baby's born, you're touching them, making sure they
- 14:00Speaker 1: breathing you. You just it's just a journey, making sure
- 14:04Speaker 1: they sit up right, to make sure they when they.
- 14:06Speaker 2: Lean to left, lean to the left.
- 14:08Speaker 1: All those journeys and all those stories are being told
- 14:10Speaker 1: in your documentary because it's over a serious it's not
- 14:14Speaker 1: just a six month period years.
- 14:16Speaker 2: As you see the growth and is.
- 14:19Speaker 1: Shown in footage when you're putting the piece in all
- 14:21Speaker 1: this together what is your thought process, Tanya and Tanya
- 14:26Speaker 1: and making sure that we understand the journey, the pain,
- 14:31Speaker 1: and potential results of what you're trying to accomplish with
- 14:35Speaker 1: this documentary.
- 14:37Speaker 3: Yeah, it was really important for us to tell the
- 14:40Speaker 3: story of the US maternal mortality crisis.
- 14:42Speaker 4: Through the people who have lost.
- 14:45Speaker 3: At the same time, we wanted to balance that with
- 14:49Speaker 3: solutions because this is not something that we can't fix.
- 14:54Speaker 4: We did not want the film to be.
- 14:56Speaker 3: Just sad and tell you a problem and then leave
- 14:58Speaker 3: you with like now and so we really and we
- 15:02Speaker 3: also wanted to give you context of how we got here,
- 15:05Speaker 3: so we talk a little bit about history. We balance
- 15:10Speaker 3: out with experts who explain to us how we got here,
- 15:14Speaker 3: what are the problems, and how do we fix it.
- 15:18Speaker 3: I also have to say that Shawnnie, o'mari and Bruce
- 15:22Speaker 3: are activists. So they did they did lose their family member,
- 15:26Speaker 3: but they also became very activated and they are inspirational
- 15:30Speaker 3: in that they turn their pain into power, as Amari
- 15:33Speaker 3: says in the.
- 15:34Speaker 4: Film, and are really trying to make it better and
- 15:36Speaker 4: not just for.
- 15:37Speaker 3: Their family, but for all of us so that we
- 15:40Speaker 3: can have better outcomes. So it was really important with
- 15:43Speaker 3: the film to balance sort of the hard truth with
- 15:48Speaker 3: what can be positive, the positive potential outcomes that we
- 15:52Speaker 3: can have, and to showcase that there are a lot
- 15:54Speaker 3: of people on the ground doing this work. There are
- 15:57Speaker 3: reproductive rights, reproductive justice rights, reproductive rights people out there
- 16:04Speaker 3: doing the work, warriors doing the work every day, getting
- 16:09Speaker 3: very little shine, very little money for the for the
- 16:12Speaker 3: fact of all of us.
- 16:14Speaker 1: You know what what what angers me and it's a positive,
- 16:17Speaker 1: well I should say positive is that you know, their
- 16:20Speaker 1: loss forced them become an expert, forced them to become
- 16:23Speaker 1: an expert, and that's not right, and that's would shine
- 16:27Speaker 1: the most out of this documentary is that the whole documentary.
- 16:31Speaker 2: Is about it is not right. It should not be happening.
- 16:34Speaker 1: And these two men, in this entire family of experts
- 16:37Speaker 1: and galvanized for a greater cause, are here because people
- 16:43Speaker 1: the system failed them.
- 16:44Speaker 2: The system failed them and so many ways it failed them.
- 16:47Speaker 1: And some of it's tied to because any lead project,
- 16:51Speaker 1: they're going to lead project is going to educate you,
- 16:53Speaker 1: by the way, and then they they you went into
- 16:55Speaker 1: the educational book and I'm gaining knowledge when you realize
- 16:59Speaker 1: that you know, c sections make money.
- 17:03Speaker 2: They do the hospital. That's the big payer. We're going
- 17:07Speaker 2: to do a C section. It's gonna make us some money.
- 17:10Speaker 2: And then but I really really got.
- 17:11Speaker 1: Into a portion of the documentary when we were talking
- 17:14Speaker 1: about midwives and that really you know, I actually played
- 17:19Speaker 1: that back.
- 17:19Speaker 2: You know, I went, this is really because you know,
- 17:22Speaker 2: I don't think I know it all.
- 17:23Speaker 1: But when I see if my minors sociology, black history,
- 17:27Speaker 1: uh was my was my minor in college, got my
- 17:30Speaker 1: little straight a's. And when I get information that delves
- 17:33Speaker 1: into this area, I go, you got to be kidding me.
- 17:37Speaker 1: But when you hear the truth, how stunned were you
- 17:40Speaker 1: or were you aware when you started doing this research
- 17:42Speaker 1: and reading about the midwives?
- 17:45Speaker 3: Yeah, the midwives situation is when you really think about it,
- 17:49Speaker 3: it is so crazy. The United States is the only
- 17:52Speaker 3: developed nation that does not have midwives integrated into women's health,
- 17:58Speaker 3: and that is based on a racist premise because black
- 18:02Speaker 3: midwives were those that took care of everyone giving birth
- 18:08Speaker 3: back in the day, not just black women, but white
- 18:10Speaker 3: women too.
- 18:12Speaker 4: But when modern medicine came in, they took the.
- 18:15Speaker 3: Economy of birthing out of the hands of black women
- 18:20Speaker 3: put it into the hands of doctors, white doctors put
- 18:23Speaker 3: and trying to push us all to go into hospitals
- 18:26Speaker 3: so that they could have the economy, and then launched
- 18:29Speaker 3: a campaign against midwives, telling us that they're dirty, they're witches,
- 18:33Speaker 3: they're dangerous. That still exists today, and it is it is.
- 18:38Speaker 4: It is not good for us, it's killing us.
- 18:40Speaker 3: And so I was actually really surprised by that and
- 18:44Speaker 3: really grateful to Helena Grant, who is the midwife in
- 18:47Speaker 3: the film, who is an amazing historian.
- 18:49Speaker 2: Amazing let's say, at one more time, tellya amazing.
- 18:53Speaker 4: Amazing Helena Grant.
- 18:54Speaker 3: We could have had an entire film with just a
- 18:57Speaker 3: camera on Helena telling us so much. There was so
- 18:59Speaker 3: much we couldn't put into the film that she educated
- 19:02Speaker 3: us on.
- 19:02Speaker 1: You know, we always talk about, you know, this critical
- 19:05Speaker 1: theory that runs around and people don't want to give
- 19:09Speaker 1: you the facts about life and history. And this is
- 19:12Speaker 1: one of those great moments when I hear about people
- 19:15Speaker 1: trying to deny actual history. This is something that happened,
- 19:19Speaker 1: is something that is because it happened, That means it's
- 19:21Speaker 1: happening today. That means that people have been outlawed and
- 19:25Speaker 1: participating who cared about the process instead of being hired
- 19:28Speaker 1: to do the process, which is a big difference. And
- 19:31Speaker 1: you guys make that distinction in aftershock talk about that.
- 19:35Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 19:35Speaker 3: I mean, look, I think that again with midwives, they
- 19:40Speaker 3: were there, they are still there.
- 19:42Speaker 4: I mean, the idea is to educate you about your.
- 19:44Speaker 3: Body, right and midwife is there from before you get
- 19:48Speaker 3: pregnant to why you're pregnant postpartum. A lot most of
- 19:51Speaker 3: these deaths happen postpartum, and midwives are there to watch you,
- 19:55Speaker 3: educate you about your body, and really empower you so
- 20:00Speaker 3: that your body can do what you needed to do.
- 20:04Speaker 3: The thing about guynecologists and obstetricians is that they're they're
- 20:12Speaker 3: really surgeons, and so they're really looking for a problem.
- 20:16Speaker 4: You know, they're and they're ready to operate.
- 20:18Speaker 3: And again I just want to say, sea sections are
- 20:21Speaker 3: really important. Thank god we have them because they are
- 20:23Speaker 3: necessary in the right situation. But what has happened in
- 20:27Speaker 3: this country, as you mentioned, is that it's become about money.
- 20:32Speaker 3: It's to come about the economics. So we find ourselves
- 20:35Speaker 3: sort of rushed and pushed into unnecessary sea sections, which
- 20:38Speaker 3: are major surgery.
- 20:40Speaker 4: Which will cause which can cause problems later down.
- 20:43Speaker 1: The line Tanya Lewis Lee, my wife had a beautiful daughter. Okay,
- 20:49Speaker 1: And when the opportunity presented itself, they said, mister McDonald,
- 20:53Speaker 1: would you like to be in the room while your
- 20:55Speaker 1: wife delivers? I said no, I said, I wait outside.
- 20:59Speaker 1: Please let me know when that beautiful child is born,
- 21:02Speaker 1: and I come in with all the drama, all the trauma,
- 21:05Speaker 1: all that is gone, ladies.
- 21:07Speaker 2: Said Jeb after shot.
- 21:10Speaker 6: I was shot because I got to see you the
- 21:12Speaker 6: actual delivery of a child. Now I say that, I
- 21:16Speaker 6: don't know if I should say thank you for allowing
- 21:18Speaker 6: me to see that, because I wasn't traumatized like I
- 21:20Speaker 6: thought I would be. But the fact that you were
- 21:23Speaker 6: able to I wouldn't say the word convince a couple
- 21:27Speaker 6: to allow that to be filmed, but it would talk
- 21:30Speaker 6: about that whole process that because that was amazing.
- 21:33Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 21:34Speaker 3: Again again, we were so lucky to find an amazing couple.
- 21:39Speaker 3: We didn't have to convince them. You know, Felicia and
- 21:44Speaker 3: Paul Ellis they you know, Felicia was pregnant in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
- 21:49Speaker 4: There was a DULA service there.
- 21:51Speaker 3: The Tulsa Birth Equity Initiative reached out to her and
- 21:55Speaker 3: said we can. We can get you a dula if
- 21:57Speaker 3: you'd like, and she said yes, and that's how we
- 22:00Speaker 3: met Felicia. Felicia wanted to share her experience because, as
- 22:06Speaker 3: she says in the film, being a black woman, a
- 22:11Speaker 3: pregnant black woman is like being a black man at
- 22:13Speaker 3: a traffic stop. You have to pay attention every step
- 22:15Speaker 3: of the way. So she was really willing to allow
- 22:18Speaker 3: us to go on the journey with her. And again,
- 22:21Speaker 3: as she says in the film, she's thinking, she's just
- 22:23Speaker 3: going to give.
- 22:23Speaker 4: Birth a regular way, you know, with a doctor.
- 22:26Speaker 3: And at a hospital, but then towards the end of
- 22:29Speaker 3: her pregnancy, she's like, wait a minute, maybe there's another way,
- 22:32Speaker 3: and allowed us to go with her and find the
- 22:35Speaker 3: birthing center and the midwives that would attend with her
- 22:39Speaker 3: at her birth, and her husband attended with her.
- 22:42Speaker 4: She was glad we got you to see.
- 22:44Speaker 3: The birthn't traumatizing.
- 22:48Speaker 2: Now what at misleep, We have a relationship. Now you
- 22:52Speaker 2: took your boy down the road. I thought I wouldn't
- 22:54Speaker 2: go see again every in my life. But I want
- 22:57Speaker 2: to thank you. I want to thank you.
- 22:59Speaker 1: I want to think thank you because of who you are,
- 23:02Speaker 1: because you people trusted you. You're telling a very powerful story,
- 23:06Speaker 1: a very needy story. After Shock, which is currently airing
- 23:09Speaker 1: on Hulu. It examines the U as a maternal mortality crisis,
- 23:14Speaker 1: and always when you hear the word crisis, somehow it
- 23:16Speaker 1: just falls heavily on the black and brown community. And
- 23:19Speaker 1: we talk about that, and it must be talked, and
- 23:22Speaker 1: it will continue to be talked. And I just I
- 23:24Speaker 1: know we're about to wrap up. I will tell you
- 23:26Speaker 1: something about me personally. I for somehow, my life has
- 23:29Speaker 1: been interesting. When I was a senior in high school,
- 23:31Speaker 1: way back in nineteen seventy six, I was I did
- 23:34Speaker 1: a report. My senior class report was about morphine babies,
- 23:38Speaker 1: babies who were born addicted to drugs. So I've always
- 23:43Speaker 1: had this journey, this this knowledge to make it right
- 23:48Speaker 1: within the black community and to know and then then
- 23:51Speaker 1: to go from nineteen seventy six to see your documentary
- 23:54Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, All like I say is Wow, Wow,
- 23:58Speaker 1: that's a blessing. That's a blessing to know that I've
- 24:00Speaker 1: met a person who has the same values I have.
- 24:03Speaker 1: I didn't continue down that lane, but you brought me back,
- 24:06Speaker 1: and you brought me back with a slap up side
- 24:08Speaker 1: of the head said boy, get back in that saddle,
- 24:10Speaker 1: will you will? You would head it down the right track.
- 24:12Speaker 1: I will promote this for you. I would tell people
- 24:15Speaker 1: about it as much as I can possibly tell about
- 24:17Speaker 1: social media and my newsletters and everything. Fantastic project. And
- 24:21Speaker 1: again thank you for coming on Money Making Conversation Masterclass.
- 24:24Speaker 4: Thank you so much for the conversation with Sean. What
- 24:26Speaker 4: a pleasure.
- 24:27Speaker 1: Thank you And if you want to see this video
- 24:29Speaker 1: or here, please go to money Making Conversation dot com.
- 24:31Speaker 2: I'm with Sean McDonald. I am your host.
- 24:37Speaker 7: Thank you for joining us for this edition of money
- 24:39Speaker 7: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
- 24:45Speaker 7: McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
- 24:48Speaker 7: information about thirty eight to fifteen Media Inc. Is available
- 24:52Speaker 7: at thirty eight fifteen media dot com. And always remember
- 24:56Speaker 7: to lead with your gifts.
- 25:01Speaker 5: St